The Community of Madrid is going to advance the cost of the dining room so that all families who have requested a scholarship for this 2023/24 academic year can use this service until their file is resolved, as indicated this Monday by the Minister of Education, Science and Universities, Emilio Viciana. The change in the dining scholarship system in the Community of Madrid has caused many students to have their file unresolved. And this has led to some boys and girls not being able to stay in the dining room these first days of school as their families could not afford the cost.
At the request of the General Intervention of the Community of Madrid and to increase the guarantees of applicant families, the system of reduced prices and exemptions that was used until now has been replaced this year by one of direct award scholarships, with the same requirements to obtain them, as explained by Viciana, who has stressed that it is a "much more guaranteeing" formula.
However, the counselor has specified that the new system requires "completing a series of administrative steps and formalities" that have caused many applications to be processed with formal defects, such as the lack of the DNI or the signature of the parents, for what is being contacted with families to correct these errors.
These incidents will be resolved before October 31, as he has stressed, and to avoid any harm to the applicant families, until that date the Community of Madrid will assume the cost of the dining room scholarship for all those who have applied for them and are pending resolution, the counselor has advanced.
Furthermore, in the event that any of the applicants do not meet the established requirements and, therefore, are not finally a beneficiary, they will not have to pay the amount advanced by the regional Administration.
In this sense, Emilio Viciana has clarified that instructions are being given to educational centers supported by public funds so that "no child who needs it is left without this service" and so that they help complete the bureaucratic procedures for families who need it. .
As recalled by the Ministry, this year the budget for this aid aimed at people with fewer resources in the region has increased to 39.2 million euros to reach 100,000 beneficiaries.
For its part, the Federation of the Community of Madrid of Student Parents' Associations (FAPA) 'Francisco Giner de los Ríos' has reported that the "most vulnerable" children are not eating in educational centers because the Administration regional "has not resolved the dining room scholarships" and has rejected the "laziness" that, in his opinion, the regional government is showing.
The legal services of the Federation are studying the possibility of registering a written complaint with the Madrid Juvenile Prosecutor's Office to determine the existence of a possible crime by the Community of Madrid against the rights of minors, while at the same time warns that he will go to the Ombudsman to request protection for the "situation of lack of protection" to which he is subjecting children and adolescents.
"The school year has already started and many minors depend on the school meal as the only complete meal they eat each day; but, today, the most vulnerable boys and girls are not eating in school cafeterias because the Community of Madrid has not resolved the scholarships," FAPA said in a statement.
For this Federation, the "tens of thousands of families with a reduced price" for the dining room service who want to use it until now could only "advance the scholarship money", something that they warn is "impossible", or "wait for it to be resolved and don't take them in the meantime."
The FAPA Giner de los Ríos has recalled, as an example, that in the municipality of Brea de Tajo the child poverty rate, calculated based on the regional threshold, stands at 67.86%; in Horcajo de la Sierra-Aoslos, at 66.67%; in Coslada, "there is a district in 59.38%", or in the district of Puente de Vallecas in the capital, in 57.43%.
"It is inadmissible that the dining scholarships are not available in time, before the start of the school year, and that this situation occurs year after year," has criticized this Federation, which demands a "free and universal" school dining model.
