Russian children will receive priority over migrants when enrolling in kindergartens

Russian children will receive priority over migrants when they are admitted to kindergartens. As Izvestia found out, such a bill will be submitted to the State Duma on August 11 by deputies of the LDPR faction led by Leonid Slutsky.

"The issue of accessibility of kindergartens and schools for children of foreign citizens is fundamental, since the very fact of having places in educational institutions is a factor stimulating the influx of foreign citizens to Russia. Only in 2024, in some regions of the country, the number of foreign children in kindergartens and schools reached 30-40%," Izvestia said in an explanatory note.

The document notes that the majority of migrant families arriving in Russia have many children, which gives them the right to receive priority enrollment. Because of this, citizens of the Russian Federation who have one or two children may face restrictions on the admission of their children to the kindergarten closest to their place of residence.

"Currently, the problem of the lack of places in kindergartens closest to the child's place of residence is urgent, as they may be occupied, including by children of foreign citizens.
Ensuring access to basic social services for our own citizens is one of the aspects of national security and stability," the document emphasizes.

In this regard, the draft law proposes to establish a priority procedure for Russian citizens when accepting or transferring to pre-school education programs.

"The Liberal Democratic Party receives a huge number of complaints from our citizens about the inability to enroll children in preschool institutions due to the fact that all places are occupied by migrant children. This is confirmed by statistics — only in 2024, in some regions of the country, the number of foreign children in kindergartens and schools reached 30-40%. As a result, almost 13,000 Russian children were unable to get into kindergartens," Leonid Slutsky explained the need for the initiative to Izvestia.

Earlier, on February 13, Lola Shurygina, an expert on the opening of schools and kindergartens, the founder of the private secondary school "Makarun", told Izvestia that for preschool children it is not worth choosing institutions that are more than 15-20 minutes away from their place of residence (on foot or by car), for children under the 4th grade — in within 30-40 minutes. She reminded that a small child gets tired quickly and it is difficult for him to travel long distances.

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