In accordance with Art. 43 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, every child has the right to attend a preschool educational institution free of charge. As part of state programs, the government constantly allocates money for the construction of new kindergartens. Despite this, there are still not enough of them in almost all regions of the country. In this regard, parents may be refused to admit their child to a preschool educational institution, even if this is illegal. If you find yourself in such a situation, it is important to quickly respond to the illegal actions of the kindergarten administration. And it is possible that in order to resolve the issue, you will have to file a complaint with the regulatory authority in order to protect the rights of the little citizen.
Reasons for refusals
Guided by the norms of relevant legislation, a kindergarten can refuse to admit a child for only two reasons: age discrepancy (preschool education is for children 3-7 years old) and unsatisfactory health. In this case, the administration’s decision is not considered a violation and the situation is unlikely to be resolved even through the courts. But the refusal is considered unlawful if it is due to the absence of:
- Medical card. As a rule, parents do not have the opportunity to take such a document, since they refused some kind of vaccination or vaccination in general. But according to the law, all children are equal and can apply for preschool education.
- Free seats. Overcrowded kindergartens are not a problem for ordinary citizens. However, they often promise to “find” a place in the group for a certain monetary reward.
- Permanent registration. According to paragraph 67 of Art. 273 of the education law, the child must live in the territory that is legally assigned to the preschool educational institution where documents are submitted. And the lack of permanent registration is an unlawful reason for refusal.
If there are no places in the nearest kindergarten, this is not the problem of parents, but of officials.
What to do if a child in the Moscow region was not accepted into kindergarten
Enrolling a child in kindergarten is a procedure that is strictly regulated by law. Distribution for the new academic year in the Moscow region is carried out from April 1 to August 31. If a child does not have enough space this year, he will be offered a free place in another kindergarten. If he refuses the offered place, he is left on the waiting list for another year. When choosing an alternative path, after the child is enrolled in kindergarten, an application is written for transfer to the desired preschool organization. What to do if there are no places in kindergarten, read the material from the mosreg.ru portal.
According to the law
Kindergarten
Source: Ministry of Construction Complex of the Moscow Region
Legislative regulation of the issue of registration of children, as well as their subsequent distribution to preschool educational institutions, is carried out on the basis of the Federal Laws “On Education in the Russian Federation” and “On the Organization of the Provision of State and Municipal Services”, as well as Administrative Regulations of the local administration of the relevant city districts and municipal areas on the basis of the above federal acts.
Representatives of preschool educational institutions have the right to refuse to place a child in kindergarten only if there are no free places. They have no right to refuse for any other reasons.
Contact higher authorities
Work of the Multifunctional Center for the Provision of State and Municipal Services
Source: Photobank of the Moscow region, Roman Vartsev
If there are no places in kindergarten for a child over 3 years old, parents can contact the head of the Education Department of the local administration. At your personal appointment, explain why you need a place in a preschool. Support your verbal statement with a petition from the employer stating that you are a valuable employee and you need to go to work.
According to the law, parents can also go to an appointment with the prosecutor's office or send a letter to the President of Russia to resolve this issue. The application will be considered within the period prescribed by law (usually within 30 days). The decision is sent in writing to the place of registration.
Find out what documents need to be completed at the birth of a child in the Moscow region>>
Apply for compensation
Writing in a notebook hand paper signature pen
Source: RIAMO, Anastasia Osipova
In some municipalities of the Moscow region, compensation is paid from the municipal budget for failure to provide places for children in municipal kindergartens based on a decision of local government bodies and subject to the provision of the necessary documents to the municipal education management body.
This issue falls within the competence of municipalities, and to resolve it, you must contact the Education Department of your place of residence.
Attend a part-time group
Training center for pedagogical excellence in Reutov
Source: , press service of the Reutov city district administration
Short-stay groups are designed for no more than three hours without food or sleep. Short-day groups are designed for 5 hours of stay with meals, but without sleep. This service is provided by municipal and private kindergartens.
In fact, the child receives the entire preschool education program there. They work with him in several areas, such as social-personal, cognitive-speech, artistic-aesthetic and physical. In municipal kindergartens, children receive free preschool education. Private kindergartens provide paid educational services.
How to enroll a child in 1st grade in the Moscow region>>
Go to a private kindergarten
Kindergarten
Source: Main Directorate of State Construction Supervision of the Moscow Region
In the Moscow region there is a program to support private kindergartens that accept children from the waiting list - a public-private partnership program. For the maintenance of one child in a private kindergarten, a monthly subvention and subsidy are allocated from the budget of the Moscow region. Parents' payment for a child's stay in such a preschool educational organization is close to the average fee in a municipal kindergarten in the Moscow region, with the exception of additional paid educational services.
After enrollment in such a kindergarten, an application is written for transfer to a municipal kindergarten at the place of residence. The child is returned to the queue according to the original date of registration, the application is assigned the status “Wants to change the preschool educational institution.” The application is considered during the current completion of groups in order of priority.
Where can you file a complaint?
If, in the opinion of parents, the actions of the kindergarten administration are unlawful, they will have to turn to regulatory authorities for help. But first, you should request a written refusal explaining the reasons for making such a decision and inform about your intention to seek help from the authorized departments. Perhaps, fearing the consequences, the administration will reconsider its decision so as not to make the conflict public. If this does not help, you should complain to:
- Department of Preschool Education of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation. As a rule, this is enough to resolve the situation. In order for the document to be reviewed as quickly as possible, it is better to contact your territorial unit https://edu.gov.ru/about/regions/.
- Rosobrnadzor of the Russian Federation. If the applicant is denied satisfaction of his demands by the department of preschool education, he has the right to appeal to Rosobrnadzor of the Russian Federation. To obtain more detailed information about the procedure for citizens’ applications and the package of necessary documents, you can call +7(495) 984 89 19.
- Prosecutor's office. If there are no free places in the chosen preschool educational institution, but the head or representative of the administration assures that he can solve the problem for a fee, this is a reason to contact the Prosecutor’s Office. It is worth filing a complaint with this department even if other regulatory organizations refused to satisfy the applicant’s demands.
- Court. If all attempts to place a child in kindergarten have been unsuccessful, you can force the administration to reconsider the decision made by force. To do this, you will have to go to court, which is best done using the services of an experienced lawyer.
Do not forget that after all the checks, parents may have a difficult relationship with the management of the kindergarten.
Is it possible to check using the application number and the child’s last name?
You can check the status of the queue at the current moment (March 2021) only based on the number of the submitted application. At the same time, if the application number was lost for some reason, it can be restored by contacting the multifunctional center.
Using the child’s last name, it will be difficult to check information about his queue (if authorization on the mos.ru website has not been completed). And this complexity is connected with the fact that today Russian legislation on the protection of personal data is becoming more and more complicated and tightened.
As a result, all data uploaded to any Internet database is anonymized and closed, and access to it can only be obtained on the basis of special identifiers, which is the number of the application for placement in a preschool educational institution.
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How to file a complaint
Regardless of where a parent decides to go to protect the rights of their child, it is better to do this in writing. You can make a complaint in free form, indicating the following information:
- details of the department to which the applicant is applying (if the document is submitted to a specific person, his full name and position should be written);
- personal data, address and contact telephone number of the applicant (this information will be used to provide a response upon consideration);
- number and address of the kindergarten;
- whether an application for registration was submitted, what number was assigned;
- reason for refusal (whether a written decision from the administration was received);
- with which official an attempt was made to resolve the situation, what agreements were reached;
- reference to legislative acts that were violated by the kindergarten administration;
- list of requirements: consider the appeal on its merits, conduct a check on the stated facts, take measures and report the results obtained;
- a list of attached documents (if any);
- date, signature.
If necessary, the following materials can be attached to the complaint: a written refusal from the administration, an application for admission of the child to the preschool educational institution, a birth certificate, a video recording of a conversation with the head, etc.
Where to complain?
If the management of a child care institution refuses to enroll your child in kindergarten, you need to make an oral or written complaint. Such issues are rarely resolved in words.
You can file a complaint online
Therefore, the first thing to do is to write a complaint to the education department (administration, department) of the administration of a particular locality. If the problem cannot be solved, you should contact the Ombudsman for Children’s Rights, Rospotrebnadzor or Rosobrnadzor, or the subject’s Ministry of Education.
The absence of a response or hints of a bribe indicate that you need to contact higher authorities - the prosecutor's office and the court. However, as practice shows, it rarely comes to this.
The written request must contain the following points:
- recipient - the name of the department to which parents are writing a complaint;
- applicant – full name of the parent or legal representative;
- address, current phone number, email (if available);
- title of the document – complaint;
- requirement;
- attachment - evidence (written refusal of the educational institution to enroll the child, responses from various authorities, etc.);
- current date, signature with transcript.
If you don’t have time to travel around the city, you can file a complaint online. All institutions have official websites. To leave a complaint, you must select the appropriate section. It may be called “Citizen Appeals”, “Internet Reception”, etc. Applications are reviewed by specialists, after which a response is sent by email or the specified physical address.
No medical card
A medical card is required to enroll in kindergarten. It is prescribed by a pediatrician after a preventive examination by specialized doctors. But a mandatory condition for its registration is the presence of vaccinations in accordance with the approved vaccination schedule. Otherwise, the pediatrician will not sign the card, and without such a document, the preschool educational institution will not be able to carry out the appointment.
On the one hand, vaccination in the Russian Federation is not mandatory and any citizen has the right to refuse any vaccination. But in such a situation, complaints to the Ministry of Education and Rosobrnadzor will not bring the desired result, since the preschool educational institution actually acts in the interests of other children, adhering to the norms of the law on the sanitary and epidemiological welfare of the population.
The only way to achieve acceptance of a child without vaccinations into kindergarten is to obtain an appropriate court decision. But this may take several years, and there is no guarantee that the claim will be satisfied in full. It is possible to win the case only if there are serious contraindications to vaccination and this is confirmed by a medical report. But if you have such a document, it will be easy to enroll in a preschool educational institution via an electronic queue.
If the pediatrician refuses to issue a medical card, you can ask him for a written refusal indicating the appropriate reason. Fearing the consequences, he will sign the document, making a note that the child cannot attend preschool.
No free space
If parents registered in a timely manner in the electronic queue for kindergarten, but somehow it stopped moving or the child was not enrolled in the chosen institution by the expected date, this is a reason to complain to the regulatory authorities.
In such circumstances, you should first seek clarification from the head of the preschool educational institution. Regardless of what reason she voices for the lack of vacancies, it is necessary to request a written refusal, which will become the basis for appealing the administration’s decision in other instances.
To report a possible violation and request an inspection, it is best to contact the Department of School Education. But if during communication with the manager you heard information that a place can be obtained for a certain fee, you should contact the Prosecutor’s Office.
Nuances of the problem
If a child is not accepted into kindergarten for good reasons, then the state tries to solve this problem in a different way. Parents are given monetary compensation. But the bottleneck of this issue is that due to poor budgets, many regions of the country do not have the opportunity to implement this.
The government was considering a bill that wanted to include all regions of the country in this program. But it was postponed. Therefore, parents need to find out for themselves whether they are eligible for such a benefit.
Each region that has assumed such obligations sets its own payment amount. The size of these funds ranges from 1000 to 6000 rubles.
No permanent registration
Not every citizen of the Russian Federation is registered at their residential address, which is not prohibited by law. Therefore, parents can place their child in any kindergarten in the country without being tied to any region. To do this, it is enough to register in the electronic queue in a timely manner and submit an application and the necessary copies of documents to the selected preschool educational institution. But, taking advantage of the low legal literacy of the parents, the administration can refuse admission, citing the lack of permanent registration, thereby violating the law.
If the situation cannot be resolved without the intervention of regulatory authorities, you will have to complain to the Department of Preschool Education. It is first important to obtain a written refusal from the head, which indicates the reason for non-admission to the preschool educational institution. It is possible that, having become convinced of the parents’ intention to defend their rights, she will reconsider the decision without the intervention of supervisory authorities.
If admission is refused due to lack of permanent registration, you can immediately contact the Prosecutor's Office. But first you will still have to receive a written response from the management of the preschool educational institution.
Reasons for contacting a kindergarten and its manager
Any violation of the rights of parents, children or the workforce, as well as inappropriate sanitary conditions of the premises can be appealed.
For example:
- poor quality nutrition;
- unsatisfactory technical condition of the building (mold);
- unlawful refusal to provide a place in the DS;
- poor care and supervision of children: children fight, they have lice (lice), and the staff does not respond;
- the nurse does not monitor the visits of sick children to the kindergarten or administered the vaccination without the knowledge of the parents;
- regular collections of funds in excess of the monthly fee, especially those for which checks or any documents confirming their acceptance from the parents are not issued.
You should definitely complain to both the manager and the supervisory authorities if you witness rough and cruel treatment of children.
Question answer
Question: My daughter’s father is a contract soldier. But in the garden of our village they refused to admit us, citing the fact that there were no free places. They offer another place, but you have to go there. I contacted the department of preschool education, they told me that there really were no places and they would not solve the problem. What to do?
Answer: If the father is a contract soldier, you can apply for an extraordinary placement (this is a preferential category). First, you should request a written refusal from the kindergarten. After this, you can complain to the Prosecutor’s Office, but not as a general complaint, since in this case we can talk about corruption (there were no places in the special queue for the benefit recipient, which is in fact impossible).
Question: For three years in a row, preschool educational institutions have denied admission. The response says “refused on a formal basis.” The decision is motivated by the fact that there are no places, despite the fact that we continue to stand in line. What is the best thing to do in such a situation?
Answer: In this case, it is useless to achieve any verbal agreements. It is necessary to contact the Ministry of Education with a demand to explain why the preschool educational institution does not accept children. But in fact, the lack of places (especially for such a period) is not a reason for refusal.
Question: We stood in line at a certain preschool educational institution. But from 32nd place this year they moved to 54th and ultimately were not included in the set. The administration explained to us that there are too many children in preferential categories. In general, the situation looks ambiguous. What is the best thing to do to resolve the issue?
Answer: Children of certain categories do have a priority right to admission to a preschool educational institution. Another thing is that the beneficiary may not be the beneficiary. To understand the situation, it is better to contact the Prosecutor's Office directly.
Who is entitled to a place in the kindergarten?
The right to a free garden is granted to “all those in need.” The above law “On Education” speaks about the rights of citizens of the Russian Federation.
Lawyers interpret the rule more broadly. In their opinion, children of foreigners located on the territory of the Russian Federation also enjoy this right.
Children with health problems and people with disabilities cannot be deprived of the right to attend a preschool educational institution.
But due to their characteristics, they must be in specialized kindergartens, where the educational authorities send them.
In practice, one or both parents of the child must be registered in the municipal area where the application for municipal services occurs.
At what age is a referral issued?
The right to place a child in a kindergarten arises from the age of 3, in a nursery - from one and a half years.
Currently, nurseries are gradually being liquidated, since the state cannot economically support them.
The “voucher” is valid as long as the preschooler needs to attend kindergarten, and until he is old enough to go to school.
However, it often happens that parents are not given a ticket to kindergarten at both 2 and 3 years old, citing the lack of places in the kindergarten.
The legislative framework
When filing a complaint against a preschool educational institution to higher authorities, you should be guided by the following legislative acts:
- The Constitution of the Russian Federation, adopted on December 12, 1993 (as amended on July 1, 2020).
- Federal Law “On Education in the Russian Federation” dated December 29, 2012 N 273-FZ (as amended on July 31, 2020).
- Federal Law “On Basic Guarantees of the Rights of the Child in the Russian Federation” dated July 24, 1998 N 124-FZ (as amended on July 31, 2020).
- Federal Law "On the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation" dated January 17, 1992. N 2202-1 (as amended on July 31, 2020).
- Federal Law “On the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation” dated May 2, 2006. N 59-FZ (as amended on December 27, 2008).
What funds are allocated from the budget for the maintenance of children?
Often, the heads of preschool educational institutions raise the issue of collecting funds to parents.
Either you need to buy beds, or you need to buy stationery and notebooks for classes with children. How legal are such demands and should parents hand over money? Important! The demands to pay money do not comply with the law. The municipality allocates funds for preschool institutions. The obligation to finance is established sub-clause. 4 p. art. 31 of the Law “On Education”. Funds must be sufficient to pay all costs, both current and capital. If parents are extorted money, then this can be stopped. You must write a complaint to the head of the education department.
To obtain accurate information about funding, you must contact your local government authority responsible for education.
Ensuring the activities of government institutions falls within the competence of local authorities. Funds are allocated both for the maintenance of the building itself and the surrounding area.
The funds allocated are not always sufficient. Exact financing data is indicated in the budget estimate. Therefore, parents can provide financial assistance, but only if they wish.
Advice! Voluntary assistance can be provided. For this purpose, a board of trustees is created, a charter and other documentation is developed. After this, everyone can officially provide sponsorship.
All financial issues are handled by the parent committee. It is wrong to transfer funds “from hand to hand”. Payments must be made to the institution's bank account.