Student’s right to enjoy a safe and good school environment

Student’s right to enjoy a safe and good school environment

Students have the right to enjoy a safe and good school environment that promotes health, well-being and learning. This means that your child should not suffer bullying or harassment from other children or from teachers. If your child is unhappy, the school is obligated to help. If the school does not help your child, you can report it to Statsforvalteren. You can call us or fill out the form on our website.

What happens when you report a case to Statsforvalteren?

If you report your case on our website, we will call you as soon as we can. You can expect to hear from us within five workdays.

In the first conversation we want to hear from you what the situation is like for your child. We will also tell you about how we work with these cases.

After we have spoken to you, we will call the head teacher and the school owner/local authority. They are asked to send us relevant documentation on how they have worked to ensure your child a safe and good school environment. In many cases we also have a meeting with the school and the school owner/local authority.

The child’s freedom of expression

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child article number 12 says that children have the right to express his or her views in all matters affecting the child, and the child’s views shall be given their due weight.

We therefore offer students to talk with us, to tell us about their experiences with their school environment. This is a right that students have, and not an obligation.

Statsforvalteren’s decision

Statsforvalteren will decide if the school has done what could reasonably be expected of it and that the school’s plans for additional measures are sufficient. If Statforvalteren believes that the school has not fulfilled its obligations, it may instruct the school owner/local authority to act to ensure that the student in question can feel safe and happy at school. It may also stipulate concrete measures that the school must take. The best interests of the students are the primary consideration when Statsforvalteren addresses the case.

Statsforvalteren will set a deadline and ensure that the school owner/local authority follows up the case by that date. If the school owner/local authority fails to follow up the case, it may be issued with a fine.

The right to complain

If you disagree with Statsforvalteren’s decision, you may complain to Utdanningsdirektoratet. You must submit your complaint to Statsforvalteren, which will first reassess the case. Next, Statsforvalteren will forward the complaint to Utdanningsdirektoratet.

Utdanningsdirektoratet will review the case, consider your complaint and decide what happens next.

The school and the local authorities can not file a complaint on our decision.