People Power Party lawmaker Lee In-sun [Lee In-sun's office]
People Power Party lawmaker Lee In-sun [Lee In-sun's office]

Lee In-sun, a People Power Party lawmaker representing Daegu's Suseong-gu who leads her party's side on the National Assembly's Education Committee, said Saturday she had introduced two bills aimed at strengthening the state's protection system for child abuse victims — amendments to the Child Welfare Act and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, collectively dubbed the "two laws to protect child abuse victims."

The core of the proposed amendments is to tighten the link between child abuse records and school enrollment management, and to ensure children's safety is more rigorously verified when exemptions or deferrals from compulsory schooling are granted.

The Child Welfare Act amendment would require that information on compulsory-school-age children confirmed as abuse victims be reported to district and regional education superintendents. It would also allow those officials to request relevant information when necessary to protect a child.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act amendment would require authorities to check a child's abuse history before granting an exemption or deferral from compulsory schooling and factor that history into the decision. It would also require officials to meet directly with the child — separated from the guardian — to verify the child's safety after any such exemption or deferral is granted.

The bills were prompted by a recent case in Cheonan in which a child abuse victim died, exposing gaps in the system: abuse records were not adequately linked to school enrollment management, and there were institutional shortcomings in verifying a child's safety after a schooling exemption or deferral was approved.

"Through these amendments, we must more actively protect children who have suffered abuse and strengthen the institutional safeguards so that precious children's lives are never again put at risk by gaps in the system," Lee said.


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