It is a good time for schools to review their application and admission processes and the way they are communicated to potential parents, in order to have transparent and non-discriminatory protocols and practices that help to avoid infractions that may result in possible sanctions.
Felipe von Unger V.
Associate
Alessandri Abogados
Although already in its final stages, the admission process to our country’s schools is in full swing. Pursuant to the calendar proposed by the Ministry of Education (Mineduc), November 30 is the deadline for the supplementary application period, for those parents who have rejected the original school assignment, or who have not applied during the main period.
The admission process to school education has been subject to major modifications in the last years. Through Law No. 20,845, “Inclusion Law”, and DFL No. 2 of 2009, the legislator regulated application and admission processes aimed at establishing a transparent, inclusive, equitable and non-discriminatory system.
Having adequate application and admission processes for school education is a condition for the verification of the rights enshrined in numbers 10 and 11 of the Political Constitution of the Republic. Likewise, appropriate mechanisms tend to build committed educational communities that adhere to the school’s educational project. Therefore, in line with their importance, the Superintendence of Education has included the application and admission processes among the matters subject to periodic review in its Annual Auditing Plans.
Programmed audits (as opposed to those motivated by complaints, for example) included in these plans are aimed at examining that educational establishments comply with the applicable regulations, and schools must therefore observe with special care not only the legal framework that governs them in general, but also that specifically designed for applications, which in the current regulatory conditions is fundamentally a matter of adequately communicating the educational project or not rigging the allocation of places. Without going any further, the admission processes have been part of the Auditing Models with a Focus on Fundamental Rights and Freedoms corresponding to the years 2018, 2019 and 2020, and, according to official figures of the Superintendence of Education, only in 2020 it received 288 complaints for possible irregularities in the admission processes.
It seems a good time for schools to review their application and admission processes and the way in which these are communicated to future guardians, in order to avoid infractions that may result in possible sanctions or liability for possible damages that may be caused.