In Irkutsk they are discussing how to bring juvenile affairs inspectors back to schools. After their cuts, officials and teachers say work with troubled teens has become much harder. The city already helps children from troubled families with free meals, textbooks, vouchers, and even temporary jobs, but specialists stress that support is often lacking for personal and family problems. The article explains why school attendance has become the main warning sign and how authorities plan to seek transfer of powers to the municipal level.

Speaking of material support, government agencies have long and successfully been performing part of the parental duties for children from families that are commonly considered dysfunctional. More than 10,000 Irkutsk children at schools are fed free breakfasts and lunches, are given free textbooks, receive school backpacks before September 1, and are provided with free travel passes. Public and government organizations often organize collections of children’s clothing for such families, and the “Integrated Center for Social Services” provides vouchers for summer vacations – for example, this year 2,569 children and teenagers will be able to rest in summer health camps. Difficult teenagers are the first candidates for sports and creative clubs, as well as for employment at their home school under the Employment Center programs. By November 31 of this year, 2,644 Irkutsk high school students will spend 2 hours a day cleaning at school, planting plants, and working in the school library.
If the process of involving a child in social relations within the education system is established and functioning, then in the sphere of personal relationships there are no such “helpers” and there cannot be. Meanwhile, one’s own family often has a destructive influence on the child. Last year, Irkutsk police opened 29 criminal cases related to improper performance of parental duties: 12 under Article 116 of the Criminal Code (battery), 2 cases of causing bodily harm, 1 of torture, and 7 of failure to perform parental duties. There are serious problems even in outwardly prosperous families, said Valentina Peregudova. She cited as an example a recent case involving a teenage girl who took pills, sent text messages to her relatives and friends saying that she was going to commit suicide, and received no help in response. Valentina Peregudova noted that teenagers from troubled families often find themselves in a situation where teachers and juvenile affairs inspectors become the closest people to them.
Of the 355 reports of possible problems in families that were received in 2012 by the juvenile affairs units, 141 alerts were recorded from children’s clinics and 214 from general education schools. According to Valentina Peregudova, the most effective tool for monitoring children now is school attendance. When teachers see systemic problems, specialists from the relevant agencies visit the family. At present, about 40 children in Irkutsk are not attending school. The reasons are different for everyone: from parents hiding from the law to the children’s own vagrancy.
Until recently, educational institutions had a full-time juvenile affairs inspector who knew all the students by face and regularly communicated with the parents of those children who had problems. School inspectors were on the staff of the internal affairs directorate structures, had offices at schools, and the city budget covered the material support for their work. By admission of teachers and school administrations, school inspectors significantly eased the educational part of the learning process.
During the reform of police structures, 80 school inspectors were removed from the police staff, while the federal law on the division of powers assigns juvenile affairs services to the competence of the regions. According to Vyacheslav Golovan, school inspectors were cut, and now all troubled teenagers in the city of Irkutsk are handled by 40 juvenile affairs specialists at city police departments and two specialists in district administrations. In total, 48 people. All police departments and district administrations noted a sharp increase in the first quarter of this year, compared with 2012, in indicators of “dysfunction”: registration, the number of crimes among minors, and the number of criminal cases initiated in cases of violence against children.
The Irkutsk city administration will soon prepare materials for the Legislative Assembly of the Irkutsk Region so that the municipality can be delegated powers to work with minors – this will make it possible to return inspectors to the schools.
Based on materials from the press service of the Irkutsk city administration