School leadership

The Criminal Code (Ley 74-25, as amended by Ley 44-26) has been in force since August 2026 Art. 393·Ley 74-25. Its first piece of news is reassuring: criminal responsibility is strictly individual — “no one may be punished criminally for another person's act” Art. 2·Ley 74-25. You answer for what you do, or fail to do when you were bound to act, not for someone else's offense.

The law also protects your role. Threatening a public servant so that they carry out — or refrain from carrying out — an act of their office (changing a grade, silencing a report) is punished with 5 to 10 years Art. 309·Ley 74-25. Theft committed in a school is aggravated theft Art. 226·Ley 74-25. And an honest clarification: faced with families criticizing the service, a public official may only pursue statements that affect their intimate or private life, or that are manifestly insulting or defamatory Art. 211·Ley 74-25; a reasonable complaint is not a crime, and a good complaints channel turns it into improvement. An excess, however, may give rise to civil liability Art. 211·Ley 74-25.

The behaviors your guidance and counselling team knows at first hand now have a criminal definition when the perpetrator is an adult. Harassment “in the educational setting” — intimidating, insulting, mocking, encouraging exclusion or isolation — is an offense Art. 121·Ley 74-25, aggravated to greater imprisonment (prisión mayor) when the victim is a minor or when it leads to suicide Art. 122·Ley 74-25; Ley 44-26 removed the word “bullying”, not the conduct. Harassment is aggravated when it takes place within an educational or training relationship Art. 144·Ley 74-25.

For school leadership there are two more names that matter. Denying access to education on discriminatory grounds is an offense Art. 173·Ley 74-25, and discrimination committed by a public official in the exercise of their duties has an offense of its own Art. 280·Ley 74-25. Admitting and keeping everyone — the child with no birth certificate, the pregnant teenager, the family that has not paid — was already a mandate of MINERD (the Dominican Ministry of Education) and of Ley 136-03 (the Code for the Protection of Children and Adolescents) Art. 48·Ley 136-03; it is now the conduct the Code backs.

School leadership is a guarantor: whoever has the duty and the possibility of preventing an outcome, and does not, may answer by omission Art. 12·Ley 74-25. Put positively: organizing protection is your best defense. Effective supervision of spaces and activities; releasing each student only to the person who holds legal custody — taking or keeping a child outside the recognized rights is an offense Art. 220·Ley 74-25 —; and compliance with any protection orders the school receives, such as one barring a person from approaching a student or collecting them: breaching them is an offense Art. 133·Ley 74-25.

Ley 136-03 assigns the head of school duties in their own name: in cases of repeated absence or dropping out, contact the family, leave a written record, insist on the child's return and, if that does not happen, refer the case to CONANI (the national child protection agency) Art. 47·Ley 136-03. The school-coexistence rules (Ordenanza 05-2023, the MINERD school-coexistence rules, Arts. 10, 14 and 46) ask for what a good school already has: mediation teams, an up-to-date code of conduct, a complaints register. The question that puts everything in order: if tomorrow you were asked whether the school acted well, which document would prove it? What is written gets written before the incident, not after.

When. From the moment you know or suspect. The duty to report situations of abuse reaches heads of school and officials, in both the public and the private sector, and anyone who reports in good faith is exempt from criminal and civil liability Art. 14·Ley 136-03. Failing to report ill-treatment or sexual assault against a minor is punished with 2 to 3 years Art. 325·Ley 74-25, and a public servant's failure to report carries an aggravated penalty Art. 327·Ley 74-25.

To whom. The route goes up from the school to the Dirección Distrital and the Dirección Regional (the district and regional education offices) of MINERD, with the Dirección de Orientación y Psicología (the guidance and psychology directorate) as the governing body; in cases of child abuse, referral to the Ministerio Público (the public prosecution service) or to CONANI must be made within a maximum of 24 hours, and where there is a risk to life the district is notified within 48 hours (Código de Ética — the MINERD code of ethics for schools — Orden 22/2023, Art. 42; Ordenanza 05-2023, Art. 27).

How. Receive, record and refer — in that order and in writing. Where an offense may have been committed, the investigation belongs to the authorities: the school documents and follows up, it does not replace the Fiscalía. Three mistakes make any case worse: face-to-face confrontations between students, negotiated silences, and altering or withholding evidence — the last of which may amount to obstruction Art. 326·Ley 74-25 or concealment Art. 261·Ley 74-25. Threatening a victim so that they do not report or that they retract is an offense Art. 328·Ley 74-25.

The school's digital policy protects students' images, their data and the institution's identity. Disclosing a minor's image or data in a way that stigmatizes them or harms their development is punished with 2 to 5 years Art. 186·Ley 74-25: the school's photos and social media call for consent and judgment. Collecting, storing or disclosing personal data by automated means without consent is an offense Art. 198·Ley 74-25: lists, grades and student files are managed, not shared.

Sharing intimate content and fabricated composites carry severe penalties, aggravated when the victim is a student Art. 192·Ley 74-25, and identity theft covers fake accounts in the name of a teacher, a student or the school itself Art. 188·Ley 74-25. Complete the picture with a rule on speaking publicly: on harassment or abuse cases no statement is made to the press — communication belongs to the designated bodies (Código de Ética, Orden 22/2023, Art. 14). A digital policy that is written down and shared with everyone turns these articles into everyday habits of school life.

When the possible author of a serious act is a student, school leadership manages two clocks. The disciplinary one: educational measures with due process, without corporal, financial or collective punishment Art. 48·Ley 136-03, and expulsion as a sanction is prohibited during the school year, except where the act attacks the integrity and safety of the school community — a case assessed jointly by the school's internal and external bodies (Ordenanza 05-2023, Art. 27). And the juvenile criminal one: children under 13 are never criminally responsible Art. 223·Ley 136-03 — faced with an act that amounts to an offense, protection measures are triggered instead —, and adolescents aged 13 to 17 — Art. 225 makes it precise: up to and including the day they turn 18 — answer before the criminal justice system for adolescents Art. 225·Ley 136-03, whose purpose is education and social inclusion Art. 326·Ley 136-03, with deprivation of liberty as an exception Art. 336·Ley 136-03.

The hinge is set by the school-coexistence rules: conduct that may constitute an offense is referred to the Fiscalía de Niñez y Adolescencia (the child and adolescent prosecutor's office) when the student is aged 13 to 17 (Ordenanza 05-2023, Art. 30). The two tracks add up, they do not replace each other: referral does not remove the educational measure, and the educational measure never replaces referral. Steering that double track — protecting the victim and the student in conflict with the law at the same time — is the new competence this framework asks of school leadership.

1. Observe. Prioritize your school's real risks — not a generic list —: unsupervised spaces, arrivals and departures, the climate between year groups. You meet the duty of a guarantor by looking in time Art. 12·Ley 74-25.
2. Document. A good record answers what happened, when, who intervened and what was decided. The complaints register and the minutes of the Equipo de Gestión (the school management team) are the evidence of your diligence (Ordenanza 05-2023, Art. 46).
3. Report. Written routes: who receives, who refers, within what deadline, who covers when the person responsible is away. Reporting protects you; staying silent exposes you Art. 325·Ley 74-25.
4. Accompany. Mediation, positive discipline, follow-up with victims and families: consistent with the principle of minimum intervention in Art. 2, no. 13 Art. 2·Ley 74-25.
5. Look after information. Files under lock and key, cases discussed only with those who need to act, data protected Art. 198·Ley 74-25. Confidentiality is protection, not opacity.

“The head of school is criminally liable for everything their staff do.” False. Criminal responsibility is individual Art. 2·Ley 74-25. You answer for your own action or omission — as an instigator or abettor Art. 3·Ley 74-25, an accomplice Art. 5·Ley 74-25 or a guarantor who did not act Art. 12·Ley 74-25 —, never for someone else's act in itself.

“Reporting is optional; that is the family's business.” False. For heads of school and teachers, in both the public and the private sector, reporting knowledge or suspicion of abuse is a legal obligation Art. 14·Ley 136-03, and failing to report ill-treatment of a minor is an offense Art. 325·Ley 74-25.

“A father can take his child away whenever he wants, even if there is a court order.” No. Taking or keeping a minor outside the recognized rights is an offense Art. 220·Ley 74-25, and breaching a protection order is one too Art. 133·Ley 74-25. A school that checks legal custody before releasing a child protects both the student and its own team.