Can a school refuse to enroll in first grade at the place of registration? Where to go, how to defend the child's right to education at the place of residence? Reply of the Department of Education and Science of the City Administration of Kiev
The admission campaign to first grade is just beginning to gain momentum, and many parents are already faced with the problem of overcrowding in schools. A number of educational institutions in Kiev and the suburbs of the capital refuse to accept documents for parents of future first-graders. The explanation is simple and at the same time unrealistic: in the three days of the entrance campaign, all the first grades were supposedly completed in schools. They do not even take children registered at the school's service area. To clarify the situation, we turned to the Department of Education and Science of the Kyiv City State Administration. They say that such refusals should not be, and this is a direct violation of the regulations of the admission campaign and the law on education.
KSCA: schools should accept all priority
Every child has the right to go to school near their home / istockphoto.com
In the Kyiv City State Administration, this situation was called nonsense. “If a child is registered and there is an educational institution for which he is geographically assigned, this will not be can, in principle, - says the head of the Department of Education and Science of the Kiev City Administration Elena Fidanyan. - Officially, admission of documents to schools began only on May 5 and will last until May 31 inclusive. The announcement of the enrollment in the first grade of all children who live in the territory assigned to the school will be posted on June 7. Therefore, from the point of view of the regulations, the acceptance of documents in schools at the discretion of the administration of the educational institution cannot be completed. "
Refuse to acceptance of documents now they can only if the child does not have confirmation of his residence in the school's service area. Such children will be admitted to the first grade at the beginning of July on the basis of a draw - provided that there are free places at the school. But everyone who goes on the priority lists need not worry, says Elena Fidanyan. They are required to be enrolled in school, even if they bring documents at the end of May.
“As of today, school principals have lists of registered children who should go to first grade this year,” explains Elena Fidanyan. - All these lists are easy to check for each district of the city. There may be isolated cases when parents registered recently, and the child simply did not have time to be included in these lists. However, this is easy to prove. There are situations when parents themselves are registered at the place of service of the school, but the child is not registered for personal reasons. If moms and dads want everything to go smoothly and smoothly, they'd better register the child. After that, there are the children of the school employees, then the brothers and sisters of the students at the school. But there are not many such cases. For example, last year less than 3% of the total number of first-graders were enrolled in children whose parents work at school. "
Lawyers: School must refuse admission in writing
School must deny enrollment in writing / istockphoto.com
Unjustified refusals of schools to enroll in the first grade may be caused by a conflict with respect to documents. According to the law, today it is possible to confirm the child's place of residence on the school grounds with a number of papers, and this does not have to be the registration of the child. You can provide the passport of one of the parents with registration at the place of service of the school, a document that confirms the ownership of one of the parents to housing, or even a rental agreement at the place of service school. However, in fact, the priority for Kiev schools is still "registration". Moreover, Elena Fidanyan herself emphasizes that for smooth enrollment in the first grade, it is the child, and not the parents, who must be registered. The expert explains this by the fact that in Kiev, due to overcrowding and the impossibility get to the right school In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of cases of purchase of a fictitious residence permit or fake rental contracts.
But lawyers call this approach to the "selection" of first-graders a violation of the law. If the document with which you confirm the child's residence is in the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers on the Procedure for keeping records of children of preschool and school age list (No. 684 dated 09/13/2017), you can safely count on priority admission and "butt" with the administration schools. If you are directly denied acceptance of documents on the basis that the child does not have registration, ask to issue this refusal with outgoing documentation in writing. Be sure to ask to indicate what exactly your school management document does not suit. As a rule, after that, the child is enrolled in the first grade without talking.
The same must be done if the school refuses to accept documents before the end of the admission campaign on the basis of the full completeness of the classes. Ask for a written refusal with reasoning, and threaten to write a request to the district education department to check the registration of all enrolled in the first grade. Most often, at this stage, the administration becomes more accommodating and the child is "the only" free seat. If you still cannot achieve what you want, take a package of documents and go to the CBR yourself. Another instance is the Department of Education and Science of the Kyiv City State Administration. Elena Fidanyan, in a conversation with us, expressed her readiness to consider the problem of a particular school in each individual case.
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