Students' handiwork: parents are forced to pay for school security
Students of the Volgograd College of Technology stated that they were being forced to pay "voluntary" contributions to the institution's security, and if they refused, they were threatened with sanctions in the form of the inability to retake their exams. However, this situation is typical not only and not so much for one of the mentioned colleges — parents of several schools and kindergartens told Izvestia about the problems at once. In some of them, payments do remain voluntary, but more often parents are forced to discount security. Izvestia investigated how legitimate and widespread this practice is.
How students are forced to pay for security
The extortion of students at the Volgograd College of Technology was reported by local media with reference to the students themselves. According to them, the payments are made in the form of donations, and they are allegedly indicated in one of the contracts that the parents signed at the time of enrollment. The wording is "voluntary donations," but non—payment accumulates a debt that teachers demand to repay.
The college said they were conducting an internal audit.
Funds for security at the college have presumably been raised for a long time. His former student, a 2020 graduate, Olesya, told Izvestia that she had been paying for security throughout her studies (since 2015).
"Before the winter session in December, it was necessary to pay security in the amount of 3 thousand rubles, or twice 1.5 thousand each before the winter and summer sessions," she told Izvestia. — It was impossible to refuse payments, as we were not given credit books until we showed the payment receipts.
She stressed that no one had reported on where these payments were going.
Judging by the messages in Volgograd chat rooms, little has changed now. There are reports of similar cases on social media.: "My daughter said: if we don't pay, we won't even be able to close our debts in subjects"; "My son also studied there, there was a payment of 3 thousand a year, or they didn't allow him to attend the session"; "I'm studying there, I'm already in my third year. One of the teachers told me that those who are unhappy with the assessment are being forced to pay, although it seems to me that they are not the only ones."
Izvestia sent a request to the Volgograd College of Technology.
How money is raised in schools
However, extortion is not only in college. Many schools and other educational institutions in Volgograd allegedly also collect money for security.
A parent of one of the students of the Volgograd Technical College (this is another vocational education institution in the same city) said that he now has an unsigned agreement "on a voluntary donation in the amount of 6 thousand rubles." However, so far there have been no demands to pay by all means — on the contrary, at the end of 2025 they offered to return it with a signature on the refusal of a voluntary donation.
In one of the schools in the Voroshilovsky district, security fees are also voluntary, although they are available — 2 thousand rubles per year per pupil.
— Every meeting we are reminded of these voluntary contributions. Our teacher always emphasizes that he has no right to demand this money, but he must remind us, as ordered by his superiors," one of the Volgograd residents told Izvestia. — This is the third year we have not paid any contributions, so far there are no problems because of this.
However, she said, at the previous school where her children studied three years ago, the fees were forced: the teachers allegedly threatened to underestimate the grades and not certify the child. Before transferring to another school, the parents refused to hand over the documents until the security fees were paid.
The resident did not mention the number of this school, noting that the principal had recently changed there, and she did not know how things were going now.
At school No. 82, money was collected for security even before the pandemic. We started with 700 rubles, and now we have 2,050 rubles a year, said one of the students' parents. According to him, the fees are supervised by classroom teachers. They are also punished if the parents have not paid or delayed the payment. Teachers insist that families pay for each child — there are allowances only for those with many children. Basically, everyone pays in order not to spoil the attitude towards the child.
— No one is accountable to parents for money, but they said in words that it was for the maintenance of the alarm button, turnstiles, entrance frame, etc., — the source told Izvestia. — They claim that this is a co-financing, not a full payment.
As of September 2024, there are 1.1 thousand students in the school. If payments really go for all students, the total amount can reach about 2 million rubles per year. At the same time, according to the contract on the public procurement website, the provision of physical security services for school No. 82 in 2026 costs 906 thousand 984 rubles.
At school No. 45, according to Izvestia, 500 rubles per year are collected from each student for protection. There were more than 1.2 thousand students at the beginning of the last school year, and the cost of the contract for the physical protection of this school is 612 thousand rubles in 2026.
They also raise money for security in preschool institutions. So, in kindergarten No. 23, the teacher asks for a monthly payment of 310 rubles. If the money is not handed over, they are allegedly simply taken from the funds raised for the general needs of the group.
— They don't account to us for what needs the money goes to. At the same time, there is only one security guard at the kindergarten, and sometimes he is not on site. You can freely walk with one of the parents who entered the kindergarten through the gate," the source told Izvestia.
In all cases known to us, parents pay dues using receipts in which "charity" is indicated in the purpose of payment, sometimes with a transcript added in parentheses: for example, "security services".
The Volgograd administration told Izvestia that the regulations concerning the requirements for the protection of educational institutions do not specify mandatory sources of funding for security services in schools and kindergartens.
"The funds allocated from the budget to pay for security services were distributed to 128 schools in Volgograd," the information policy committee said. — Taking into account the requirements of the legislation, schools have conducted competitive procedures, and security service providers have been selected. The missing funds for physical security can be reimbursed from extra-budgetary funds.
However, it is emphasized that the decision to provide assistance is "made by parents independently, voluntarily," and this is "a right, not an obligation."
— At least once a half-year, parents (legal representatives) are informed about the expenditure of extra-budgetary funds at parent meetings, meetings of the parent committee, and the school council. Every year, municipal educational institutions post information about the expenditure of extra—budgetary funds on the official websites of schools in the documents section — "Results of self-examination," the administration said.
Let's add that, for example, on the websites of schools No. 45 and No. 82 in the "Results of self-examination" for 2024 there is no information about the contributions received from parents and the expenditure of extra-budgetary funds.
We should add that a similar situation with payments for security at schools is developing all over the country: complaints about this came from the Yaroslavl region, Bashkiria, Tatarstan, and in the latter case it became known against the background of the tragedy with the attack on the educational institution.
Can parents pay for security
Valery Alekseev, head of the Investigation Bureau of the Popular Front, stressed that what is happening with security fees in educational institutions is a manifestation of a systemic problem that the Popular Front has been raising for several years.
The obligation to organize security formally lies with the educational organization and its founder — the municipality or the subject of the federation, he noted.
— Parents are not the subject of financing the school's security system. Child safety is the area of direct responsibility of the state and the founders of educational organizations. The problem should be solved not at the expense of parents, but through putting things in order in financing and suppressing dumping in the security services market," the Izvestia interlocutor is convinced.
Oleg Samsonov, a private lawyer in practice, stressed that, according to the law on Education, schools can receive donations. And the parents' council has the right to decide on the collection of funds — but only in relation to themselves, and not the parents of all children attending this institution, he stressed.
At the same time, each parent of a student has the right to transfer funds to the institution's checking account of their own free will and even indicate the intended purpose of the funds transferred, for example, for security. However, he has the right to receive full information about the expenditure of the charitable contribution.
— It is necessary to proceed from the principle that donations for a certain service are voluntary. The head of the institution has no right to force parents to pay for the security services of an educational organization," the Izvestia interlocutor emphasized.
How much is spent on security in education
The problem is also that there is not enough funding, and they are saving on security, Valery Alekseev added.
—5,080 school principals took part in our comprehensive monitoring of general education in the 2024/2025 academic year, and 21% of them admitted that they had to save on security due to insufficient funding,— Valery Alekseev told Izvestia.
In 2021, a sample analysis by the Popular Front showed that part of the bidding for the provision of security services for social institutions ended with a reduction in the cost of security services to 79%. And data from the Tenderplan agency showed that in 2023, educational institutions across the country spent 62.8 billion rubles on security services, 19% less than in 2022.
Sergey Silivonchik, Chairman of the Board of the Union of Self-regulatory Organizations of the Non-Governmental Security Sector, Vice-president of the Association "School without Danger", noted that up to 75% of the cost of the security post is salaries and social benefits for employees. The amount is linked to the regional minimum wage, regional allowances, and characteristics of the security service: round-the-clock or daytime post, whether special equipment is used, whether a service is provided to respond to alarms from the facility, and so on.
In addition to the security guard, the contract amount also includes deductions for the work of the operational duty service and other security personnel.
— Today, this whole structure works for very little money, given that government customers are setting an unhealthy trend towards choosing a performer with an eye to the lowest price. As a result, the most unscrupulous representatives of the market are involved in the execution," Sergei Silivonchik complained in an interview with Izvestia.
Roman Nasonov, head of the Rus Association of Security Structures, adds that for the proper performance of security guard duties, there must be at least four qualified guards on staff, but there is often a situation where one educational institution "cannot properly staff even one guard."
According to Roman Nasonov, there are now many contests that security companies do not enter at all, because the money offered is not enough, and school administrations really need to find funds for security by any means. He believes that in the whole country, the security sector in schools is underfunded by one and a half to two times.
According to Sergey Silivonchik, at the end of 2025, it became clear that many large business representatives began to abandon the protection of social facilities altogether: the risks of organizations became "incomparable with the possible profits."
— At the same time, the budgets of the vast majority of subjects do not have a target line of expenses for the purchase of security services for social infrastructure facilities, including educational organizations. We have repeatedly taken the initiative to allocate these funds in the regions for targeted purposes in order to ensure transparency and reasonableness of budget formation and spending. Unfortunately, to date, this initiative has not found support," the source told Izvestia.
Izvestia sent a request to the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation.
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