Recommendation of the Czech Ombudswoman on equal access to preschool education

The first recommendations on equal access to preschool education were issued already in 2010 by then Ombudsman Pavel Varvařovský. They were his response to complaints raised by parents whose children had not been admitted to a kindergarten. Kindergarten headteachers were making decisions based on criteria the parents considered discriminatory. Consequently, the aim of the recommendations was to assess the most commonly applied criteria in terms of their compliance with the law.

In 2016, a major amendment to the Schools Act was enacted. The amendment introduced mandatory preschool education and the right to preferential admission to a kindergarten based on age. Just as the other types of education, preschool education, too, must also be governed by the principles of equality and non-discrimination. For this reason, the current Ombudswoman Anna Šabatová has decided to update the recommendations to reflect the current legislation in the area.

The recommendations include assessment of the criteria most commonly used in admissions to preschool education and their application to various groups of children (children with the obligation to attend preschool education, children with the right to preferential admission, and (non-)catchment children). The recommendations also address the procedural aspects of kindergarten headteachers’ decision-making.

The most important conclusions are as follows:

• The headteacher’s decision not to admit a child to the respective kindergarten must include proper reasoning. A mere enunciation that the child is not admitted due to capacity reasons or insufficient number of points is not enough.

• A child – legally represented by the parents – can appeal against the decision on non-admission to the kindergarten.

• The catchment preschool-age children must be admitted preferentially. There are also other criteria which can – under certain circumstances – lead to preferential treatment such as the age of the child, having siblings in the same kindergarten, adherence to an alternative teaching method, parent’s employment status or the child’s social situation.

• As to the criterion concerning the parent’s employment status, it must be stressed that this criterion cannot be applied indiscriminately. It is inadmissible to give preferential treatment to all children whose parents are employed. It is not permissible to give preferential treatment to children based merely on a specific job carried out by their parents.

• Inappropriate criteria for a preferential admission are: the order in which the child’s application was received, distance of the child’s home or place of permanent residence from the kindergarten, and the child’s health.

• Only children who have received the prescribed regular vaccinations may be admitted to a kindergarten. The only exception applies to a child who has a document proving that the child is immune to the relevant infection or that the child may not be vaccinated because of a permanent contraindication.^[1] This, however, does not apply to preschool-age children. The headteachers must admit these children even if they lack the vaccinations.

The recommendations are intended primarily for headteachers in kindergartens administered by municipalities or associations of municipalities, regional authorities (which hear appeals against decisions not to admit a child), the founders, the Czech Schools Inspectorate, parents, as well as the general public.

The full version of the recommendations is available here .

[1]  Section 34 (5) of the Schools Act in conjunction with Section 50 of the Public Health Act.