You are renting in Warsaw, looking at a new flat under construction, and your child will start school in a year or two. Which school? In Poland that depends on where the family actually lives on the day you notify the school about year 1. It does not depend on the address of the flat you buy, on registration of residence (meldunek) or on the child’s citizenship (art. 151 and art. 165 ust. 1). Every address in Warsaw falls within the catchment (obwód) of exactly one public primary school (art. 39 ust. 5aa pkt 2), and the catchments are set by the city council in a resolution listing streets. So before you pay a reservation fee (opłata rezerwacyjna), check two things: which school the new development’s address belongs to, and whether you can move in before the notification deadline. The rules are given as at October 2026 (Education Law, consolidated text Dz.U. 2026 poz. 820).
Checklist before reserving
- Which year your child starts year 1 (table below).
- The exact address of the building: street and, if already assigned, number.
- The catchment for that address: ask the district office or the school.
- The completion and transfer-of-ownership date from the information prospectus (prospekt informacyjny) and the draft contract, set against the school notification dates.
- The distance to the catchment school, and a fallback plan if you move after the notification.
In which year does a child start pre-school year and year 1?
As at October 2026:
- Zerówka (pre-school year). One year of pre-school preparation starts at the beginning of the school year in the calendar year in which the child turns 6 (art. 31 ust. 4–5).
- Year 1. Compulsory schooling starts at the beginning of the school year in the calendar year in which the child turns 7 (art. 35 ust. 2).
- Earlier. A six-year-old may start school at the parents’ request if they attended nursery or zerówka the year before or have an opinion from a psychological and educational counselling centre (poradnia) (art. 36 ust. 1–2).
- Later. The head of the catchment school decides on deferral. The request with the centre’s opinion is submitted by 31 August at the latest (art. 36 ust. 4–6).
Scroll the table sideways to see all columns.
| Child’s year of birth | Zerówka | Year 1 (from September) | The school authority will set notification dates by |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2026/2027 | 2027 | end of January 2027 |
| 2021 | 2027/2028 | 2028 | end of January 2028 |
| 2022 | 2028/2029 | 2029 | end of January 2029 |
Even a deferral is decided by the catchment school, so the address matters also when your child starts a year later.
What does the catchment school give you, and what does it not?
Children living in the catchment are admitted to year 1 of a school that has a catchment automatically, on the parents’ notification (art. 130 ust. 5 and art. 133 ust. 1, as at October 2026). Points do not matter here. Children from outside the catchment are admitted through a recruitment procedure if the school has free places (art. 133 ust. 2). The school authority sets recruitment dates by the end of January (art. 154 ust. 1 pkt 1) and publishes the criteria and points by the same date (art. 154 ust. 3).
Two rules from the parents’ guide to year 1 recruitment in Warsaw for 2026/2027:
- a place in the catchment school is a right, not an obligation: you may list other schools too;
- if the catchment school is on your list of chosen schools in any position, you keep priority there if the child does not get into a school higher on the list.
The catchment school is not necessarily the nearest. Catchment boundaries follow streets, not distance from home, so the school across the road may not be yours.
Registered address or place of residence: what do you write on the notification?
Parents attach a declaration of where the parents and child live, made under criminal liability for a false declaration (art. 151). The provision speaks of place of residence, not registration (meldunek). Registration at the new address is not a condition, but on its own it decides nothing either.
For someone buying a flat from a developer this gives a simple rule: what counts is the address where the family really lives on the day of notification. A flat under construction that you have not moved into is hard to treat as a place of residence. You then notify from your current address, to your current catchment school.
How do you find out which school the new address belongs to?
Catchments are described by street names or parts of streets, and are set by the municipal council in a resolution published in the voivodeship official gazette (art. 39 ust. 5 and 5aa). For Warsaw this is a resolution of the Warsaw City Council in the Dziennik Urzędowy Województwa Mazowieckiego. Step by step:
- Ask the developer’s sales office (biuro sprzedaży) which street the entrance will be on and whether the number has been assigned. In a large estate, buildings from different phases may stand on different streets.
- Write in Polish to the district office, giving the street and number, and ask for a written reply. If the street is not yet in the resolution, the office will tell you which school the address will be assigned to.
- Remember that the municipal council can change catchments by a later resolution, after a positive opinion from the education superintendent (art. 39 ust. 5 and 5c, as at October 2026). Today’s answer applies to today’s resolution.
- Look at the area on the map of new developments in Warsaw with a district filter. A development page has a “Schools” layer from OpenStreetMap data: it shows where schools stand, but not catchment boundaries. A development’s pin is sometimes approximate, so determine the catchment by address.
If you are comparing the city with a municipality outside Warsaw, remember that each municipality’s own council sets its catchments. We write about that choice in our guide on what to compare when choosing between Warsaw and Ząbki or Marki.
Handover date versus year 1 notification: will you be able to move in?
The school authority will set dates for the 2027/2028 school year by the end of January 2027 (art. 154 ust. 1 pkt 1). The benchmark is Warsaw 2026/2027: registration of notifications ran from 10.02.2026 to 24.02.2026, and lists of admitted children were published on 10.04.2026 (parents’ brochure, school year 2026/2027).
- Flat ready, or handover before registration. If you move in before notifications open, you notify the child to the catchment school for the new address.
- Handover after recruitment. You notify the child from your current address. You may also apply to the school near the new flat as an out-of-catchment candidate, if it has free places. After you move, the new catchment school admits a child living in its catchment automatically, also during the school year (art. 130 ust. 2).
- Dates from documents, not conversation. The planned completion of works and transfer of ownership are in the information prospectus and the draft developer agreement. How to judge whether construction is on schedule is covered in our guide on how to check whether the developer will hand over the building on time.
If school is a condition of the purchase, count back in months from the registration of notifications in the year your child turns 7. That shows whether a flat under construction fits at all, or whether a ready one is a better search.
If you are a foreigner: renting during construction, PESEL and documents in Polish
A foreigner buys a flat in Warsaw without a permit from the Ministry of the Interior and Administration (MSWiA) regardless of citizenship: it is a separate unit outside the border zone, and Warsaw is not in it (art. 8 ust. 1 pkt 1 and ust. 3 of the Act on the acquisition of real estate by foreigners, consolidated text Dz.U. 2017 poz. 2278). The purchase does not give a right of residence, because the Act on foreigners contains no such basis. The school notification rules also do not depend on owning a flat, only on place of residence. A family that rents and does not read Polish documents has its own difficulties, though. As at October 2026:
You rent a flat while the building is built. Your place of residence is the rented flat. You submit the year 1 notification at that address, to that address’s catchment school. Construction can take longer than it seems: according to GUS, in 2025 multi-family buildings in Poland took 24.8 months on average to build (publication “Efekty działalności budowlanej w 2025 r.” of 30.06.2026). If you rent in the same catchment as the future building, your child will not change school after the move, as long as the catchments do not change. Before signing the lease, ask the district office which schools both addresses belong to. You must not write an address where you do not live on the notification, because the declaration is made under criminal liability.
Your child does not have a PESEL yet. PESEL is assigned automatically when you register a stay of over 30 days, or on application at any municipal office. The service is free, and nationals of countries outside the EU, EFTA, Switzerland and the UK apply in person (gov.pl, page updated 26.03.2026). If there is no number yet, the notification gives the series and number of the child’s passport or other identity document (art. 151 ust. 1 pkt 1).
Your child speaks little Polish. A child who is not a Polish citizen and does not know Polish, or not well enough to study, is entitled to additional free Polish lessons for up to 24 months. They are organised by the body running the school (art. 165 ust. 7 of the Education Law).
Documents and replies in Polish. The declaration of residence is a document with legal effect: do not sign it until you understand every line. Write your question to the district office in Polish, with the street and number, and ask for a written reply, which is easy to translate and keep. Handover dates are in the prospectus and the developer’s contract. The Developer Act (consolidated text Dz.U. 2026 poz. 880) does not regulate the language of these documents. Under the Polish Language Act, documents with a consumer resident in Poland are drawn up in Polish, and a contract in another language is possible if you ask for it yourself, know that language and were told beforehand of your right to a Polish text (art. 7 ust. 1 and art. 8 ust. 1, 1b, consolidated text Dz.U. 2026 poz. 81). A developer agreement is concluded before a notary as a notarial deed (art. 40 ust. 1 of the Developer Act), and notarial acts are done in Polish. At a party’s request the notary also does them in a foreign language, either personally or with a sworn translator (art. 2 § 3 of the Notaries Act, consolidated text Dz.U. 2026 poz. 614). If you need a certified translation, a sworn translator (tłumacz przysięgły) makes it (art. 13 pkt 1). The Minister of Justice keeps the list of such translators and publishes it in the BIP (art. 6 ust. 2 and art. 10 of the Act on the profession of sworn translator, consolidated text Dz.U. 2019 poz. 1326).
Notification dates follow the Polish calendar. In Warsaw in 2026 registration opened in February (table above). If you move to Warsaw or change flats in winter, the address where you live in those very weeks will decide.
The catchment school is far from the new flat: what does the law say?
A child’s journey from home to school may not exceed 3 km in years 1–4 and 4 km in years 5–8. If it is longer, the municipality must provide free transport and care during the journey, or reimburse the cost of public transport if parents take the child (art. 39 ust. 2–3, as at October 2026).
In practice, the daily connection matters more than kilometres: can your child get there without crossing a busy road, and does the school drop-off fit on your way to work? If you travel by metro, see also new flats near metro stations and their prices.
FAQ
Do you need a registered address (meldunek) to enrol a child in a catchment school in Poland?
No. Under the law as at October 2026, parents applying to the catchment school submit a declaration of where the parents and child live, under criminal liability for a false declaration (art. 151 of the Education Law). What counts is where the family actually lives. The provision does not require registration of residence.
Will the catchment school accept a foreign child?
Yes. Children who are not Polish citizens and are subject to compulsory schooling attend public primary schools on the same terms as Polish citizens (art. 165 ust. 1 of the Education Law, as at October 2026). A child living in the catchment is admitted to year 1 automatically, on the parents’ notification (art. 130 ust. 5 and art. 133 ust. 1).
Which school will the child go to if we rent now but are buying a flat that is still being built?
The catchment school for the address where the family actually lives on the day of notification, that is, the rented flat. A flat under construction that you have not yet moved into is hard to treat as a place of residence (art. 151, as at October 2026). After you move, the new catchment school admits a child living in its catchment automatically, including during the school year (art. 130 ust. 2).
What if the child does not have a PESEL number yet?
PESEL is assigned automatically when you register a stay of over 30 days, or on application at any municipal office. The service is free, and nationals of countries outside the EU, EFTA, Switzerland and the UK must apply in person (gov.pl, page of 26.03.2026). If there is no number, the notification gives the series and number of the child’s passport or other identity document (art. 151 ust. 1 pkt 1).
Will a child who speaks little Polish get help?
Yes. A child who is not a Polish citizen and does not know Polish, or not well enough to study, is entitled to additional free Polish lessons for up to 24 months. They are organised by the body running the school (art. 165 ust. 7 of the Education Law, as at October 2026).
At what age does a child start year 1 in Poland?
As at October 2026, one year of pre-school preparation (zerówka) starts in the calendar year in which the child turns 6 (art. 31 ust. 4–5), and compulsory schooling in the year the child turns 7 (art. 35 ust. 2). A child born in 2020 starts year 1 in September 2027.
Chosen a flat under construction and heading to the developer’s sales office? Write to us before your first visit. We will register you at the sales office, go to the meeting together, ask about the building’s address, go through the information prospectus and the draft contract with you, and point out what to ask the developer or a lawyer: the handover date has to be set against the year 1 notification. A buyer of a flat from a developer does not pay us a fee. Our fee on the primary market comes from agreements with developers. We serve clients in 7 languages.
Jawno · +48 692 649 839 · infojawno@gmail.com
Agent: Vladyslav Moroz (sole trader, professional indemnity insurance). Rules as at October 2026.
This text is for information only and is not legal advice.