School in Spain: how to enrol your child, deadlines and documents

How the school system works

Spanish schooling is divided into stages, and your child's age determines where and how you apply:

Compulsory schooling from 6 to 16 is set out in the organic law on education (LOE). By funding type, schools fall into three groups: publica (state, free), concertada (private but state-subsidised, with nominal payments) and privada (private, paid in full). The admision procedure described below applies to publica and concertada schools, while private schools admit pupils under their own rules.

Filing deadlines: the admision windows

Each autonomous community sets its own school admissions calendar, but the logic is the same across the country:

1. Spring (a benchmark of March to June). The window for applications (solicitud de admision) for the next school year opens. The window is short, usually one to three weeks. In Madrid, for example, admissions traditionally run in March and April, while in the Valencian Community they fall closer to May and June; the exact dates are published every year by the education portals of the autonomous communities (for Valencia, the conselleria at ceice.gva.es).
2. Late spring. Provisional and final lists of admitted pupils are published with their points; at this stage you can lodge an objection.
3. June and July. The formal matricula, completing enrolment at the assigned school within the set dates. Missing the matricula means losing the place.
4. September. The school year begins.

If you moved mid-year or missed the window, there is an out-of-cycle procedure: places outside the general intake are managed by the school allocation commission (comision de escolarizacion) at the education department. You will be given a place in the system in any month, but most likely wherever one physically exists rather than at your school of choice.

Baremo points: who gets a place

When there are more applications than places, a points system kicks in: the baremo. The exact weightings are set by the autonomous community, but the set of criteria is stable:

• Siblings at the same school is the heaviest criterion (it often outweighs all the others put together).
• Proximity, meaning your registered address (padrón) or the parents' workplace within the school catchment area.
• Family income, with extra points for recipients of social benefits and low-income families.
• Large family or disability in the household, and in some regions single-parent status.

The practical conclusion for new arrivals: your padrón address is a schooling strategy. Being registered in the catchment area of the school you want, done before you file the application, directly affects your points. The application lists several schools in order of preference: if your points fall short for the first one, the child is allocated to one of the next options or to the nearest school with places available.

Documents for enrolment

The standard set (check against your own autonomous community):

• the admission application (filed online through the education portal or at your first-choice school);
• padrón, the certificate of registration at your place of residence (volante de empadronamiento);
• the child's documents: passport and NIE (if they already have one; for compulsory schooling the absence of a NIE does not block enrolment);
• the parents' documents: passports, NIE/TIE;
• a birth certificate with a sworn translation into Spanish;
• a vaccination record (cartilla de vacunacion): Ukrainian and other foreign records are accepted, and the paediatrician will check the schedule and top it up if needed;
• for infantil and for benefits, documents on income, large-family status and the like;
• records of previous schooling for older pupils, so that the right year group can be set.

For compulsory schooling (ages 6 to 16) no homologation of Ukrainian school documents is required: the child is placed in the year group matching their age. Recognition of a school leaving certificate is needed later, for bachillerato or university entry, and we have covered that process in our article on homologacion of diplomas and school certificates.

Language of instruction and settling in

The curriculum is taught in Castilian Spanish and, in bilingual regions, in the language of the autonomous community: Valencian, Catalan, Galician or Basque. The share of subjects taught in the regional language depends on the region and on the individual school, and that is worth bearing in mind when choosing a city: your child may have to master not one new language but two.

For new arrivals the school system provides support:

• settling-in classes (aula de acogida, PASE and similar), an intensive language course in the first months;
• extra support hours in the core subjects;
• at a number of schools, a coordinator for integrating foreign pupils.

Experience shows that children in primaria reach a working level of the language within six months to a year. It is harder for teenagers in ESO: for them, choosing a school with a strong support programme matters more than the school's ranking.

How Krepko helps

Schooling is a matter of calendars, points and paperwork, all in a language you may still be learning. Krepko handles the process for you:

• We calculate your baremo chances for specific schools and help you build the list of preferences.
• We track the admision windows of your autonomous community, prepare and file the application on time and see the matricula through.
• We prepare the documents: padrón, sworn translations of certificates, vaccination records, with the translations done by licensed specialists, sworn translators.
• If you move mid-year, we handle out-of-cycle enrolment through the commission.

Schooling is part of our Everyday life in Spain practice. Planning a move with children? Leave a request and we will review it free of charge: we will tell you the exact filing dates for your region and what to prepare right now.

Sources

• Ministerio de Educacion, Formacion Profesional y Deportes
• Conselleria de Educacion (Valencian Community) - the admision calendar
• BOE: Ley Organica 2/2006 de Educacion (LOE) - compulsory education