New Ukrainian Law: Schools Must Now Report Student Absences Directly to Police

Revised Protocol for Addressing School Absences

According to ХВИЛЯ: The Ukrainian government has enacted a new policy, Decree No. 241, which fundamentally alters how schools must respond to student truancy. This regulation mandates that educational institutions immediately report children who are not attending school to the juvenile police and child protection services. The decree officially took effect on February 25, 2026. This move is part of a broader effort to modernize child welfare monitoring in the country.

Under the updated requirements, once a child is marked as 'not engaged in learning' within the AICOM electronic system, the school must act without delay. Previously, the official response to prolonged absences could take weeks, but now, as noted by Olena Parfionova,

“the state's response has become stricter: what used to take weeks now happens almost instantly.”

A school records this status after a student has been absent without a valid reason for 10 working days. It is important to note that the 10-day threshold remains; missing one or two days, or even a week, does not trigger this status.

Goals of the New Measures

Consequently, if a child misses more than 10 working days of school without a valid excuse, this information is automatically forwarded to juvenile police and child services. These changes are designed to establish more effective oversight of school attendance and to enable a faster response to issues related to truancy.

These reforms indicate a strengthening of state oversight in education and child protection, representing a significant step in safeguarding children's welfare. The use of electronic systems to monitor attendance could not only improve educational statistics but also help promptly identify children who may need assistance with personal or family problems that are interfering with their schooling.