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School leadership.

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Leadership decisions with the legal
framework clear and close at hand: what the

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law protects, what it falls to you to
organize and what evidence shows that your

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school acted well.

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Section 1 · What this Code protects for
you Its first piece of news is reassuring.

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The Criminal Code (Ley 74-25, as
amended by Ley 44-26) has been in force since

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August 2026.

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Criminal responsibility is strictly
individual: “no one may be punished

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criminally for another person's act”.

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You answer for what you do or fail to
do when you were bound to act, not for

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someone else's offence.

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Threatening a public servant so that
they carry out — or refrain from carrying

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out — an act of their office (changing a
grade, silencing a report) is punished

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with 5 to 10 years.

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Theft committed in a
school is aggravated theft.

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Faced with families criticizing the
service, a public official may only pursue

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statements that affect their intimate
or private life, or that are “manifestly

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insulting or defamatory”.

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A reasonable complaint is not a crime —
though an excess may give rise to civil liability.

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Section 2 · What now has a name What your guidance
team knows at first hand now has a criminal definition.

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Harassment “in the educational
setting” — intimidating, insulting, mocking,

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encouraging exclusion or isolation — is
an offence, aggravated to prisión mayor

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when the victim is a minor
or when it leads to suicide.

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Harassment is aggravated within an
educational or training relationship.

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Denying access to education on
discriminatory grounds is an offence, and

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discrimination committed by a public
official in the exercise of their duties

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has an offence of its own.

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Admitting and keeping everyone — the
child with no birth certificate, the

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pregnant teenager, the family that has
not paid — is the conduct the Code backs.

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Section 3 · Your duty to organize protection
Organizing protection is your best defence.

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Whoever has the duty and the possibility
of preventing an outcome, and does not,

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may answer by omission.

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Effective supervision of spaces and
activities; releasing each student only to

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the person who holds legal custody;
compliance with any protection orders the

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school receives.

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Ley 136-03 assigns the head of school
duties in their own name: in cases of

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repeated absence or dropping out —
contact the family, leave a written record,

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insist on the child's return and, if
that does not happen, refer to CONANI.

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The Normas de Convivencia
(Ordenanza 05-2023, Arts.

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10, 14 and 46) ask for what a good
school already has: mediation teams, an

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up-to-date code of
conduct, a complaints register.

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If tomorrow you were asked whether the
school acted well, which document would prove it?

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What is written gets written
before the incident, not after.

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Section 4 · Reporting: when, to whom, how Receive,
record and refer — in that order and in writing.

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From the moment you know or suspect.

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The duty reaches heads of school and
officials, in both the public and the

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private sector; anyone who reports in
good faith is exempt from criminal and

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civil liability.

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Failing to report ill-treatment or
sexual assault against a minor: 2 to 3 years.

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A public servant's failure
carries an aggravated penalty.

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The route goes up from the school to
the Dirección Distrital and the Dirección

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Regional of MINERD, with the
Dirección de Orientación y Psicología as the

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governing body.

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For child abuse: referral to the Ministerio
Público or to CONANI within 24 hours at most.

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For a risk to life: notification
to the district within 48 hours.

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Receive, record and refer —
in that order and in writing.

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The school documents and follows
up; it does not replace the Fiscalía.

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Three mistakes make any case worse:
face-to-face confrontations between

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students, negotiated silences, and
altering or withholding evidence — which may

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amount to obstruction or concealment.

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Section 5 · The digital environment The school's digital
policy protects images, data and the institution's identity.

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Disclosing a minor's image or data in a
way that stigmatizes them or harms their

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development: 2 to 5 years — the
school's photos and social media call for

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consent and judgment.

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Collecting, storing or disclosing
personal data by automated means without

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consent is an offence.

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Sharing intimate content and
fabricated composites carry severe penalties,

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aggravated when the victim is a student.

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Identity theft covers fake accounts in
the name of a teacher, a student or the

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school itself.

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A rule on speaking publicly: on harassment
or abuse cases, no statement to the press.

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Section 6 · Adolescents and the law
School leadership manages two clocks: the

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disciplinary one and the
juvenile criminal one.

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The disciplinary clock: educational
measures with due process, without corporal,

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financial or collective punishment.

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Expulsion as a sanction is prohibited
DURING THE SCHOOL YEAR, except where the

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act attacks the integrity and safety of
the school community — a case assessed

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jointly by the school's
internal and external bodies.

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Children under 13 are never
criminally responsible: faced with an act that

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amounts to an offence, protection
measures are triggered instead.

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Adolescents aged 13 to 17 — Art.

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225 makes it precise: up to and
including the day they turn 18 — answer before

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the criminal justice system for
adolescents, whose purpose is education, with

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deprivation of liberty as an exception.

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Conduct that may constitute an offence
is referred to the Fiscalía de Niñez y

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Adolescencia when the
student is aged 13 to 17.

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The two tracks ADD UP, they do not
replace each other: referral does not remove

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the educational measure, and the
educational measure never replaces referral.

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Section 7 · Five practices that protect
your school Observe · Document · Report

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· Accompany · Look after information

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Observe.

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Prioritize your school's real risks —
not a generic list —: unsupervised spaces,

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arrivals and departures, the
climate between year groups.

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You meet the duty of a
guarantor by looking in time.

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Document.

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A good record answers what happened,
when, who intervened and what was decided.

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The Libro de Registro de Denuncias and
the minutes of the Equipo de Gestión are

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the evidence of your diligence.

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Report.

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Written routes: who receives, who
refers, within what deadline, who covers when

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the person responsible is away.

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Reporting protects you;
staying silent exposes you.

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Accompany.

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Mediation, positive discipline,
follow-up with victims and families: consistent

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with the principle of minimum
intervention in Art. 2, num.

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13, which declares criminal law a “last
resort” and instructs THE STATE to give

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priority to prevention.

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Look after information.

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Files under lock and key, cases discussed
only with those who need to act, data protected.

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Confidentiality is
protection, not opacity.

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Section 8 · Myths worth letting go of Three
head's-office sentences that do not survive a reading of the text.

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“The head of school is criminally liable
for everything their staff do. ” False.

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Criminal responsibility is individual.

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You answer for your own action or
omission — as an instigator or abettor, an

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accomplice, or a guarantor who did not act
—, never for someone else's act in itself.

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“Reporting is optional; that is
the family's business. ” False.

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For heads of school and teachers, in
both the public and the private sector,

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reporting knowledge or suspicion of
abuse is a LEGAL OBLIGATION, and failing to

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report ill-treatment of
a minor is an offence.

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“A father can take his child away whenever he
wants, even if there is a court order. ” No.

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Taking or keeping a minor outside the
recognized rights is an offence, and

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breaching a protection order is one too.

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A school that checks legal custody
before releasing a child protects everyone.

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Commentary, not the letter of the law ·
Three views on this page Signed opinions

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from the editorial team.

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They are not law, and not legal advice.

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Saya Nakamura-Ellis, the researcher:
“What this framework asks of school

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leadership is method: identify risks,
assign responsibilities, record decisions,

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verify results.

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Which protocols exist on
paper, and which exist in practice?

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The distance between the two is
the risk you need to close. ”

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Marcus Okonkwo-Brandt, the guardian:
“Fairness is decided at the school gate.

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Denying access to education on a
discriminatory ground can be a criminal

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offence, and expelling a student for
non-payment during the school year is

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expressly prohibited.

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Admitting, keeping and supporting everyone is
not charity: it is complying with the law. ”

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Carlos Miranda Levy, the curator:
“The strategic question is not ‘how do I

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protect myself?

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’ but ‘what system leaves
proof that we protected? ’.

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Do not pile up papers: build routines
your team can sustain on any ordinary

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Tuesday. ”

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All of this, article by article, with
every citation linked to the official

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text: ailearning.

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global/penal/rd/en/direccion/ This
material is guidance; it does not replace the

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law or legal advice.