The Federation Council approved the expanded collection of information about orphans

The database of orphans will include more information about how they live and are raised in a foster family, including information about physical and emotional health. Such a law was approved by the Federation Council at the end of last week. Some guardianship experts consider it progressive and aimed at improving the well-being of children left without parental care. Others call it “juvenile”, increasing “surveillance of families” – and are already asking the president to reject the initiative. However, one of Kommersant’s interlocutors called the amendments only “the beginning of work” on the legislative provision of social support for foster families.

On July 28, the Federation Council approved amendments to the law “On the state data bank on children left without parental care”. They were developed by the Committee on Family, Women and Children; the government submitted them to the State Duma at the end of January this year. The explanatory note says: guardianship and guardianship authorities cannot now keep a full record of information about orphans, since the law does not provide for information interaction between the state data bank on children and state information systems. “In this regard, in 2020, the guardianship and guardianship authorities simultaneously entered into two state information systems, respectively, twice information about 22,370 parents who were deprived of parental rights, and about 6,964 parents who were limited in parental rights,”— note the authors of the initiative.

Their amendments mainly provide for the expansion of the list of information entered into the state data bank. Now this bank records only information about children who need adoption, and the placement of a child in a family is the basis for terminating registration.

The amendments also provide for the collection and storage of data on the entire life of the child under guardianship and his foster family up to the age of majority.

This includes information about the child’s health, emotional and physical development, family relationships; data on the observance by guardians (custodians) of the rights and legitimate interests of the child, on ensuring the safety of his property; the conclusion and recommendations of the body of guardianship and guardianship based on the results of checking the place of his residence. In addition, the amendments provide for the keeping of records of persons deprived of parental rights or limited in them; citizens suspended from the duties of a guardian (custodian) for improper performance of assigned duties; former adoptive parents, if the adoption is canceled by the court due to their fault. The explanatory note states that the amendments are aimed primarily at protecting the rights and interests of children and should exclude their transfer to dysfunctional families. In the third reading, the State Duma adopted the document on July 20.

Irina Zinchenko, head of family care at SOS Children’s Villages, says that some adoptive parents and guardianship specialists may consider the new law a tightening of state control, but the basis of the changes, in her opinion, is “quite progressive.” According to Ms. Zinchenko, the authors of the initiative want to improve the well-being of children left without parental care. Improving a single data bank will speed up and improve the entire process of registration of guardianship – after all, specialists will have access to complete information about potential adoptive parents and children in any region. “If a family now wants to take a child to another, remote region, it may face great difficulties and expenses. People have to go to the region, and it is not at all a fact that this will be a successful and productive trip,” Ms. Zinchenko gives an example. “In the conditions of our large country, this stops many potential guardians from registering guardianship in a region other than their own. This means that children can no longer find a family.”

Irina Zinchenko hopes that the amendments will help all authorized professionals see “in real time” what the child’s living conditions are and how his needs are met, assess his emotional and physical health and family relationships.

“The availability of such information can be useful not only for analyzing the well-being of children and their quality of life, but also for preventing the return of children to residential institutions,” says Ms. Zinchenko. She points out that the number of canceled decisions to transfer a child to a family is constantly growing: in 2021 there were 5210 such cases, and in 2022 – already 5334: “These are terrible numbers, our pain point. And we need to find out why this is happening.”

Representatives of the organization “Public Ombudsman for Family Rights”, on the contrary, believe that the bill is “juvenile” in nature and enhances “surveillance of families.” “Public Commissioners” urge their supporters to send a request to the president to reject the initiative. “The bill actually abolishes the constitutional provision on privacy in relation to all guardian families, including for related guardianship,” the organization says in the appeal. digital database, since it is convenient for officials: it is no coincidence that the explanatory note refers to the “optimization” of the work of guardianship authorities in the implementation of control measures and “modern trends in digitalization””.

Adoptive mother Ekaterina Zhelennikova does not see “anything criminal” in the bill: if everything is fine in the family, there is nothing to hide, she believes. However, she calls the points on the placement of data regarding the state of health of a minor ward, his emotional and physical development and relationships in the family “extremely controversial”: “Firstly, these categories are mostly evaluative. Secondly, there is a medical secret, and it must be strictly guarded, which becomes unrealistic if information is placed in a data bank with wide access.” Ms. Zhelennikova wonders about the level of protection for such sensitive personal information: “Of course, no one, except for the relevant departments, should have access to it. But leaks, as we know, happen – and there are risks.”

We add that Irina Zinchenko considers the amendments to be only “the beginning of work”. In parallel, in her opinion, it is necessary to introduce the obligatory socio-psychological, socio-pedagogical support of families who have adopted children. At the moment, such support is not mandatory in most regions, but according to Ms. Zinchenko, foster parents and guardians need it.

Natalya Kostarnova