The police have the right to prosecute parents and issue fines. The fact that plane tickets and accommodation are cheaper outside of the holidays is not a good reason to skip school.

Children on the first day of school Photo: Inquam Photos / George Călin

Police in Romania are taking the first steps toward implementing a law that allows fines for parents whose children skip school without valid reasons. Although the law has been in place for many years, so far the only punishment for skipping school has been to lower students’ grades. Things are different in other countries, where parents are fined hundreds of euros if they decide to go on holiday outside the school holidays, and are even turned away at the airport if they cannot justify the urgency of the trip with the child.

In the spring of 2022, the public in Romania was shocked by the fact that a Romanian family was questioned by the police at a German airport about their child’s absence from school. The information was erroneously reported by several publications, which then wrote that the German police had warned the authorities in Romania that the family would be fined. The truth, which was later presented by edupedu.ro, was that the Romanian family lived in Germany, the children studied there, and the police informed the school management to fine the family.

For many European countries, and not only, this situation is normal: children can be absent from school only in justified situations (illness, special events or various emergency situations). If parents take them out of school during school holidays, when accommodation and flights are cheaper, they are fined.

In Romania, during the school year, children have the right to a 40-hour holiday for non-medical reasons. The maximum number of admissions cannot exceed 20% of the number of hours allocated to the discipline.

The law provides for the application of fines if the child is absent more than once, but so far everything has remained at the level of theory.

However, the first step was taken in the spring of 2023 in Arad, where dozens of parents were notified that they would be fined up to 1,000 lei for the unjustified absence of their children.

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