New Measures Allow School Principals to Address Malicious Complaints

From now on, school principals will have the legal authority to terminate phone calls or meetings, restrict access, or even report to law enforcement in response to malicious complaints that disrupt educational activities. Additionally, a national initiative to strengthen parental support will be established annually, and publishers will be required to submit digital files to ensure timely distribution of braille textbooks for visually impaired students.

The Ministry of Education announced on October 20 that the Cabinet approved amendments to the "Enforcement Decree of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act" and the "Regulations on Textbooks". These amendments will take effect on October 29, coinciding with the enforcement date of the primary law, which was announced in April.

The key focus of the amendment to the "Enforcement Decree of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act" is to protect educators from indiscriminate malicious complaints and to normalize educational activities in schools.

According to the new provision (Article 65), if a principal believes that the actions of a student or guardian making a complaint may disrupt educational activities, they must first request that the behavior cease.

If the complainant does not comply with the request, the principal can take specific actions, including terminating phone calls or meetings, restricting access, or reporting to law enforcement. In urgent situations, principals can act immediately without prior requests to cease the behavior.

With the establishment of school complaint response teams and support teams from the education office, the burden of handling malicious complaints that individual teachers faced will shift to a more organized public response system.

The institutional framework to support parents as partners in education will also be strengthened. Starting in 2027, the Minister of Education and local education superintendents will be required to annually establish and implement initiatives aimed at enhancing parental capacity and facilitating communication on educational policies (new Article 31-7). To support these initiatives, provisions for gathering feedback from the field and conducting surveys on project, personnel, and budget status have also been established (new Article 31-8).

Additionally, public institutions, universities, and education colleges will be designated as "National Parent Support Centers" (designated by the Minister of Education) and "Local Parent Support Centers" (designated by local education superintendents) to systematically manage parent education and counseling programs as well as policy research (new Articles 31-9 to 31-11).

An amendment to the "Regulations on Textbooks" aimed at ensuring the learning rights of students with disabilities has also been passed. This amendment addresses structural issues that have prevented timely production and distribution of braille textbooks and other materials for visually impaired students at the start of each semester.

The new provision (new Article 31-2) mandates that publishers of educational materials submit digital files within 30 days of a request from the Minister of Education. The submitted files must be identical to standard textbooks, including covers and copyright pages, and must be in a format that can be easily converted to braille or digital audio.

Exceptions for delaying submission are strictly limited to legitimate reasons, such as damage or deletion of files due to hacking or computer viruses, or ongoing litigation related to the files, to enhance effectiveness.