The law on the system to prevent child neglect and juvenile offenses will be amended with a clause giving the police the right to detain and place in temporary detention centers all juveniles who appear in the street at night without any accompanying adult. Now the police may only detain a teenager for committing an offense.
The Duma will change the procedure in the law on education for excluding a student from school. The school will have to receive the consent of the parents' committee and the commission for juvenile affairs. Now schools may exclude a problem pupil on its own if he/she is over 14 and systematically violates the school's charter.
School principals, heads of cultural and sports centers will have to pay fines if teenagers drink alcohol or take drugs on the premises they oversee.
Parents that do not fulfill their duties in bringing up their children will be sent to jail. The relevant prison terms have not been set yet.
The critical situation with homeless and neglected children is the reason for the tougher legislation.
According to Yekaterina Lakhova, the chairman of the State Duma committee for women, family and young people, the number of homeless children in Russia is, according to various estimates, between 100,000 and 4,000,000.
According to official statistics, 16,000 school-age children do not go to school, while 50,000 run away from home every year. Indeed, 280,000 families in Russia are considered to have problems and the majority of drug addicts are teenagers.
