Daycare: Disclosure of waiting list becomes mandatory – 09/21/2023 – Education

Vice-president Geraldo Alckmin (PSB) sanctioned the law that obliges public authorities to publish the waiting list for places in daycare centers and public basic education schools.

The sanction of the project was published this Thursday (21) in the Official Gazette of the Union.

Alckmin served as acting president, due to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s (PT) trip to Cuba and the United States, to participate in the UN General Assembly (United Nations). The law was sanctioned without vetoes.

The proposal amends the Education Guidelines and Bases Law to include the determination to publish this list, following some parameters.

In this way, the public authority is obliged to “disclose the waiting list for places in basic education establishments in its network, including daycare centers, in order of placement and, whenever possible, by school unit, as well as disclose the criteria for preparation of the list”, according to the new law.

During its processing by the Senate, a provision was included that required the same list to be sent to the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the guardianship council of each locality, for monitoring. However, the deputies overturned this section as they considered it excessive bureaucracy.

The proposal concluded its processing in the National Congress on August 30th.

The author of the project, licensed deputy Carmen Zanotto (Cidadania-SC) stated that the publication of the list aims to provide transparency to the process.

“Early childhood education has been mandatory since 2009, but even so, parents of 4 and 5 year old children find it difficult to enroll their children, creating a waiting list, and trust in these waiting lists, however, is limited, as that parents do not have access to it, in addition, having their child’s name on it does not guarantee a real chance of enrollment and the child may end up without a place at all”, states the author, justifying the project.

“It is undeniable that there are waiting lists to obtain a place in educational establishments ranging from early childhood education to high school and the lack of knowledge, on the part of parents, of these lists and in what order and criteria they are given. . With a view to transparency and monitoring of parents in the process of requesting places, I propose this change in the Law of Guidelines and Bases for National Education”, he adds.