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First graders (symbolic image): the boy's development is jeopardized by refusal to attend school
Photo: Moritz Frankenberg / picture alliance / dpa
If parents do not send their seven-year-old child to school, they may be partially deprived of custody.
This was decided by the Higher Regional Court (OLG) in Karlsruhe in a decision published on Tuesday.
The case under discussion was about a primary school student who started school in September 2021 at the age of almost seven, but "had not turned up for a single school day by the end of the school year in summer 2022," according to the court.
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The parents had not sent the boy to school because of the corona measures, later they argued, according to the court, that their son could develop "greatly" through "free learning in homeschooling".
The school turned on the youth welfare office, but the talks failed.
The family court in Offenburg then instructed the parents to send the boy to school.
On the other hand, they lodged a complaint with the Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court.
Higher Regional Court tightened the decision of the lower court
The Higher Regional Court tightened the decision from Offenburg in summary proceedings by temporarily withdrawing the parents' custody and right of residence for their son with regard to school attendance and transferring it to the youth welfare office.
The court justified the far-reaching measure with indications of a significant endangerment of the child's well-being.
School should not only be about knowledge and social skills.
Compulsory schooling also serves the state’s educational mandate and the underlying public interest.
The court said that the boy's development and his equal participation in society would be jeopardized by his refusal to attend school.
File number: 5 UFH 3/22
sun/AFP