The dispute over the date of admission for first-graders from Kirov to Lyceum No. 28 has reached the Supreme Court.

      Newsler.ru already reported last summer on this high-profile situation: back in July 2025, more than 40 families living in the area assigned to the lyceum faced refusals for enrollment. The administration made concessions, expanded classes, but some parents still did not receive spots. The conflict moved to the judicial level, however, the lower courts did not support the families' position. Now, the cassation appeal from the parents, as they say submitted in June 2026, has reached the Supreme Court.

      The timing being contested

      The key argument of the applicants was not the refusal itself, but the moment when the acceptance of applications for available spots began.

      The editorial office has a screenshot from the Unified Regional Information System of Education of the Kirov Region. It shows that exactly at 9:00 AM on August 1, 2025, the system received eight applications simultaneously — with a difference of one to two seconds. The others were submitted with intervals of several minutes. This synchronicity, according to the applicants, indicates that the electronic acceptance was opened strictly on command at the specified time, and not from July 6.

      According to the materials of the complaint, on July 31, the director of the lyceum issued an order to start accepting applications for available spots from 9:00 AM on August 1. At the same time, the announcement on the school's website, according to the parents, appeared only ten minutes before the start.

      Local act against federal law

      This decision contradicts the federal Procedure for Enrollment in Education, approved by the order of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation No. 458.

      According to paragraph 17 of the document, for children not living in the assigned area, the acceptance of applications begins on July 6. The school can only move the start to an earlier date if it has already accepted all beneficiaries and all children from the assigned area.

      However, on July 28 — three days before the disputed order — the lyceum's management itself announced an increase in class sizes and the opening of an additional first grade. This means that as of July 31, the acceptance of children from the "attached" micro-area had not yet been closed, and the school had no legal grounds to launch a second wave earlier than scheduled.

      What the regional Ministry of Education omitted

      In the response from the Ministry of Education of the Kirov Region dated April 17, 2026, to the request from the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, the agency describes in detail how the decision to increase classes was made on July 28.

      However, the official letter does not mention the fact of issuing the order on July 31 to move the start of acceptance to August 1. Regional officials, who have oversight authority in the field of education, bypassed this episode in their response.

      At the same time, the Ministry of Education of Russia itself, in its response dated April 24, 2026, explicitly stated: "The acceptance of applications in a different manner is not provided for by legislation," and paragraph 17 of the Procedure is included in the register of mandatory requirements, and its violation entails control measures. However, it was the region that should have conducted them, which in the letter omitted the existence of the director's order.

      A precedent for the entire country

      The story of Lyceum No. 28 has become an indicator of a long-standing problem: the freedom of local school acts often contradicts federal norms. If the Supreme Court sides with the applicants, it will create a precedent for the entire country — directors will ultimately lose the right to change federal enrollment deadlines with their internal orders.

      Currently, a situation is effectively developing where parents anywhere in Russia may find out about the start of document submission literally just a few minutes before it begins.