Lisovy: We will now be stricter about school absences
Education and Science Minister Oksen Lisovy announced that authorities will take a stricter approach to children missing school without a valid reason.
"We document violations of a child’s right to education, and then we work with the Juvenile Police to determine the cause of these violations," Lisovy said at a press conference summarizing the three-year work of the Ministry of Education team, responding to a question about students’ failure to attend school.
He stressed that the responsible authorities will now be "more strict about school absences."
"We are currently discussing synchronizing efforts between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, particularly the National Police, which is responsible for monitoring a child’s presence at an educational institution. If a child is absent for an extended period of time, we must notify both the Child Welfare Service and the National Police, who must make efforts to locate the child. After that, depending on the cause, various accountability mechanisms are activated," said Deputy Minister of Education and Science Nadia Kuzmicheva.
She noted that this is not a new approach, but a return to mechanisms that were not very active due to the pandemic and the invasion.
As reported, Ukraine’s Education Ombudsman, Nadia Leschyk, advocates for reducing the period of time children can stay home from school without a medical certificate from ten to five days, as well as increasing parental accountability.
According to the procedure for maintaining records of preschool- and school-age children, foster children, and students, if a student is absent from classes for ten consecutive working days for unknown or unexcused reasons, the responsible official at the educational institution changes the information in the child’s profile by adding the notation "not enrolled in classes." The reasons for the student’s absence from classes are confirmed by a corresponding medical certificate from the healthcare institution or a written explanation from one of the child’s parents or other legal representatives, provided in any format.
According to the Code of Ukraine on administrative offenses, failure of parents or persons replacing them to fulfill their statutory obligations to ensure the necessary living conditions, education and upbringing of minors or underage children entails a warning or a fine of 50 to 100 non-taxable minimum incomes of citizens (UAH 850-1700), and the same actions committed repeatedly within a year after the imposition of an administrative penalty entail a fine of 100 to 300 non-taxable minimum incomes of citizens (UAH 1,700-5,100).
