The State Duma is set to review a new bill this week concerning migration policy, according to an announcement made on June 9 by Speaker of the House Vyacheslav Volodin. The proposed legislation includes measures to enhance information sharing between educational institutions and the Ministry of Internal Affairs regarding migrant children.

Under the proposed bill, regional and municipal education authorities would be required to share specific data with the Ministry of Internal Affairs. This includes personal information about the child and their parents, enrollment details, expulsion records, and test results.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs, in turn, would provide educational authorities with data on these children related to registration or migration registration. Furthermore, the results of Russian language proficiency tests for all foreigners would be entered into a federal information system.

Volodin stated that this exchange of information would facilitate the prompt assessment of the legality of a child and their parents’ presence in Russia, informing subsequent decisions. He also suggested that identifying migrant children not enrolled in schools would help protect them from illegal activities and rash actions.

This development follows the recent enactment of a law prohibiting the enrollment of migrant children in schools without demonstrating Russian language proficiency and verifying the legality of their stay in the country. Since the law’s implementation two months ago, only 4% of applicants have been admitted to schools. As of May 22, data indicates that 2,868 applications were submitted for testing participation, with only 17% (498 individuals) being admitted to the exam.