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Does a school have the right to refuse to admit a student with registration?
Currently, obtaining secondary education is the main goal of every child. But in some cases, it happens that the school administration refuses to accept a future student, citing a lack of places in the educational institution or other reasons.
Parents should not blindly believe such excuses; they must try to achieve justice, because they can go another way, for example, putting pressure on the school principal and his subordinates.
Important! Parents should remember the following information: each school is tied to a specific microdistrict that it must serve, therefore, any child living in the area assigned to the educational institution has every right to study there, even in the situation if there really are no places there.
Representatives of an educational institution do not have the right to refuse persons wishing to study at a particular educational institution, otherwise this may be regarded as a violation of the child’s right to free education.
Required documents
Children are admitted to school on the basis of a personal application from the parents (legal representatives) of the child after presenting the original document that identifies the parent (legal representative).
In the application for admission to school, parents (legal representatives) must provide the following information:
- Full name of the future student;
- Date and place of birth of the future student;
- Parents' full name.
When submitting an application, you must provide:
- A document confirming the registration of the child at the place of residence or place of stay (on the territory assigned to the school);
- Identity document of the submitter;
- Child's birth certificate;
- Child's medical record.
Remember! If a future student has diplomas or diplomas, you need to take all this with you. Schools strive to recruit talented students. Therefore, the presence of bonuses and awards will contribute to a positive outcome in enrolling a child in school.
All submitted applications must be properly registered. Within seven days after receiving the documents, an order is issued to enroll the child in first grade.
Temporary registration of a child for school:
If you do not want to send your child to the school that is assigned to your address, the ideal option would be temporary registration in the territory that is assigned to the school you need. It can be done from friends, relatives and through intermediary companies. Because Children under 14 years of age can only be registered with their parents; you must find housing where the owner will agree to temporarily register at least a parent.
The owner's consent is not required to register minors. If a child is 14 years old, he can submit an application himself, but with the notarized written consent of the parent. Temporary registration does not require deregistration after the expiration of the registration period.
Application deadline
The time frame for filing an application is very important. The management of the educational institution establishes the rules for admitting children to the first grade in accordance with the established provisions: in this calendar year, parents have the right to submit an application between the first of February and the thirtieth of June.
Before the first of July, the school management publishes information about the current state of enrollment in classes and the number of vacancies.
Initially, the recruitment is made from children who live in the territory attached to the school. The vacancies that remain after processing the entire flow of applications are distributed among future students whose parents living in other areas sent applications before the first of July. These children will be enrolled until the fifth of September.
Watch the video. Can the school director refuse to accept a child at his place of registration:
How to protect your rights
The situation with admission to an educational institution, at first glance, may look ambiguous.
For example. Irina and her child lived in another city. Circumstances were such that the child had to be transported to his father and enrolled in school there. The child was given temporary registration, but the parents did not have time for the “first” wave of applications. The second round of admission was announced in July. The father wrote a statement, but after 2 weeks he received a response that there were no places. Moreover, the child did not live on the territory assigned to the school. But their application was among the first to be submitted.
What to do in this situation?
- Contact the school principal for clarification.
- Write a complaint to the regional education department.
- Write a complaint to the prosecutor's office.
If the school opens a second stream of applications, there should be places for those who live in another area. They will be provided in order of priority. But if someone submitted an application earlier, then the school director, accepting this student out of turn, is breaking the law.
How to protect yourself from possible problems?
- write an application for admission to school in 2 copies; one of them must be signed by the director’s secretary;
- demand a response to your application;
- ask the director to show the log of incoming documentation, which indicates what kind of account your letter was;
- find out how many places are allocated for the second stream - for those who apply from other areas.
Different types of educational organizations may have different admission rules. They are established, as a rule, by by-laws or local acts. In some cases, just the fact of registration is not enough. For example, for a gymnasium, enrollment by exam is possible.
But it is important to know that such grounds for refusal as low student performance or lack of knowledge of foreign languages are illegal. If you are asked to take a bribe or perform certain actions, write a statement to law enforcement agencies. Education is free for everyone.
Read: How to Get Reimbursement for School Uniforms in 2021
Can the application be rejected?
The management of the educational institution has no right to refuse to accept an application. It must be accepted and registered. If the administration of an educational institution believes that a child cannot enroll in a school “at his place of residence,” it must still accept the application and provide a written response to the refusal to enroll in the first grade, motivating the reason for the refusal.
Attention! Our qualified lawyers will assist you free of charge and around the clock on any issues. Find out more here.
What is the probability of acceptance
The law does not allow an official address to be required as a formal condition for enrolling children in school. According to the Law “On Education” (FZ-273), registration for a school is not a prerequisite either for the admission of future first-graders or for transferring a student from a district or city.
Sample application for admission of a child to kindergarten
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| Category: | Judicial issues |
| Date of: | 22.05.2017 |
Sample application for admission to school
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| Category: | Housing issues |
| Date of: | 22.05.2017 |
Despite the fact that legal norms do not allow a ban on enrollment in a school or preschool institution at the address of residence, many general education institutions have territorial registration of future first-graders. To find out which school your child will go to according to his registration, you just need to call the local education department, where they will probably tell you where your son or daughter should be admitted.
Parents have the right to choose not the school closest to their home, but another one, but also located within their district or municipal district. If we are talking about admitting a student to a school located in a neighboring area, the administration of the educational institution may refuse to accept the child, citing high class sizes. However, the director does not have the authority to refuse to admit a student if he lives in the same neighborhood as the educational institution. Is registration required to enroll in school? In the absence of temporary registration for a period of three months, this may result in a fine of 2,000 to 3,000 rubles. In addition, you need to take into account that when admitting a student, the director or head teacher will probably look at the parents’ ID cards for local registration.
According to the law, a child under 14 years of age cannot be registered anywhere other than with his parents. If the marriage between the father and mother is dissolved, the children can be registered with one of them.
If the family has moved and does not yet have registration, the child will need to obtain a temporary registration for school. The institution is required to place the student in an age-appropriate class if the 90-day discharge period from the previous address has not yet passed. If a family arrived at a new address in September, the parents may not legally have registration until the end of November. But this does not mean that their child is free from attending classes until this time. The educational institution is obliged to accept the student in any case.
Read also: How does the legal eviction of a registered person who is not the owner take place from an apartment?
What to do if your child is not accepted
The most common case is refusal due to lack of vacancies. It is worth remembering that the applicant has the right to send the child to a specific educational institution if he acts within the framework of the law.
If the head of the educational institution does not want to listen to the parents’ arguments, then you can promise to complain to the Ministry of Education, and then offer alternative options:
- Choose a class in another parallel where there are vacant places (that is, desks);
- If there are none, then you can try to transfer all students to a larger room where there is enough space for everyone;
- Sometimes it happens that students themselves visit other classrooms. In such a situation, you need to make sure that teachers come to the children, and not vice versa.
If such options do not help resolve the misunderstanding, then the head should pick up the lists of students from other areas and transfer them to the applicant.
Often, the administration of an educational institution offers the child’s parents to wait and guarantees that there will certainly be a place for their child in August. But, as a rule, this does not happen, and expecting parents have to urgently look for other options.
The contradiction can be resolved in another way: after refusal, politely ask to hand over the charter of the educational institution (a document available to each educational institution).
It specifies all the rights and responsibilities of school management, teachers, staff and students. The information that needs to be obtained from this document is located in the chapter “Rules for Admission to School.”
After reading the document, parents will receive a lot of useful information, reference to which will help solve the problem.
Note! If this does not have an effect, you should request from the school management a written reason for the refusal with references to regulations. This document with the seal of the educational institution must be sent to the authority in charge of education
In addition, you can contact the prosecutor's office with a request to check the availability of vacancies in a particular educational institution.
How to find yours?
How do we find out which school we belong to by registration? To find out a school by registration address, you need information about the attachment of a specific house to it. This information can be obtained in several ways:
- Through the Internet . For example, in Moscow there are lists of schools by registration. Therefore, you need to enter your registration address and find out which school you can send your child to.
In the educational authorities of the area of residence. You can visit the organization in person or call by phone.- Directly to the OS . By visiting the website of the educational institution, you can find out about the procedure and progress of enrollment. On the website you can find out the list of documents for admission, familiarize yourself with the Charter and other regulatory documents regulating educational activities. If it is not possible to visit the site, a phone call or a personal visit to the educational institution will solve the problem.
If you don't know the specific address of the school, remember where you went to vote during the elections. Houses whose residents belong to a polling station , most often located in schools, are attached to this particular educational institution. This means that, according to registration, your child must study at this particular school.
Find out whether you need to obtain the owner's consent to register a child from our article.
How to enroll a child in school without registration?
