You have a child who will attend a Polish school, and a short list of flats from developers. A child’s school is set by the school catchment area (Polish: obwód or rejon szkolny), that is, a list of streets assigned to one state primary school, and not by the property you buy. The rule is simple: every address belongs to the catchment area of exactly one state primary school (art. 39 ust. 5aa pkt 2 of the Education Law, consolidated text Dz.U. 2026 item 820), and in Warsaw the catchment areas are set by a resolution of the Warsaw City Council. The order of steps is harder: check the catchment area and the completion date before you pay the reservation fee, not after you sign the contract. All provisions are cited from this Act, as at October 2026.
This text does not repeat the rules of the catchment area (we describe them in how the school catchment works for a new development address). It shows how to use that knowledge when choosing between several developments, and what to ask the sales office.
How do you use the school catchment as a filter when choosing a development?
A catchment area does not point to the nearest school; it is a list of streets. A school across the road may not be your catchment school, and buildings from different phases of a large estate may stand on different streets. So you go through your shortlist step by step:
- Mark your candidates on the map of developments. For most estates the point on the map is an approximate location, and the “Schools” layer (OpenStreetMap data) shows where schools stand, but not the catchment boundaries.
- Ask the developer’s sales office (biuro sprzedaży) which street the building entrance will be on and whether an address number has already been assigned.
- For each address, ask the district office or the school which catchment area it belongs to. If the street is not yet in the resolution, ask which school the address will be assigned to, preferably in writing or by e-mail.
- Catchment areas can change: the municipal council changes them by a new resolution after a positive opinion from the education superintendent (art. 39 ust. 5 and 5c, as at October 2026). The answer applies to the resolution in force today.
- For estates outside Warsaw (for example in Ząbki or Marki), the catchment areas are set by the council of that municipality, so ask there. What else to compare is described in Warsaw or the suburbs of Ząbki and Marki.
Three scenarios: completion date and Year 1 recruitment
What matters is where you live on the day you apply. The application includes a declaration of the place of residence of the parents and child under pain of criminal liability (art. 151). The provision speaks of the place of residence, not of registration (zameldowanie). Registration is therefore not a condition, but on its own it decides nothing.
Scroll the table sideways to see all columns.
| Scenario | What you do | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| A. You move in before applications open | Apply to the catchment school for the new address | art. 130 ust. 5, art. 133 ust. 1 |
| B. Handover after recruitment | Apply from your current address to your current catchment school; after the move the new catchment school admits the child, also during the school year | art. 130 ust. 2 |
| C. Date uncertain | Apply from your current address; you can also apply to the school near the new flat as a candidate from outside the area, if it has a free place | art. 133 ust. 2 |
Children from the catchment area are admitted to Year 1 without a competition, on the basis of an application. Children from outside the area take part in recruitment if the school has free places (art. 133 ust. 2). The managing authority sets the Year 1 recruitment dates by the end of January (art. 154 ust. 1 pkt 1). As a guide: for the 2026/2027 school year in Warsaw, applications could be registered in the system from 10.02.2026 to 24.02.2026 (until 8 p.m.), lists of admitted children were published on 10.04.2026, and on 4.05.2026 supplementary recruitment opened on the basis of a list of free places. The dates for 2027 are not yet known.
A place at the catchment school is a right, not an obligation: you can name other schools. The information for parents on Year 1 recruitment in Warsaw also says that if you list the catchment school in any position, you keep priority there if your child does not get into a school higher on the list.
Who starts Year 1, and when?
Compulsory schooling begins in the school year of the calendar year in which the child turns 7 (art. 35 ust. 2). A year earlier the child completes one year of pre-school preparation, the reception year (art. 31 ust. 4-5). A child born in 2020 starts Year 1 in September 2027, and one born in 2021 in September 2028. A six-year-old can start school at the parents’ request if they attended nursery school the previous year or have an opinion from a psychological and educational counselling centre (art. 36 ust. 1-2). The head teacher of the catchment school decides on deferral; the request is submitted by 31 August with the centre’s opinion (art. 36 ust. 4-6), so the address matters for deferral too.
Questions for the sales office before reserving
Collect answers in writing before you pay the reservation fee:
- What will the building’s address be (street, number), and will later phases of the estate have different addresses?
- What planned date of completion and transfer of ownership follows from the information prospectus (prospekt informacyjny) and the model developer agreement (umowa deweloperska)? You compare this date with the recruitment calendar.
- Is there a plot nearby designated for a school? If so, check its designation in the local spatial development plan, not in sales materials.
- From the resolution or the district office: which school is this address assigned to, and are any changes to catchment areas planned?
If the school is a condition of your purchase, count back in months from the start of applications in the year your child turns 7. Then you can see whether a flat under construction fits the timetable at all, or whether it is better to look for a ready-to-move-in one. How to judge the pace of construction is described in whether the developer will meet the completion date.
The catchment school is far from the new flat
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 provides free transport and supervision during the journey, or reimburses the cost of public transport when parents take the child (art. 39 ust. 2-3). In practice the route matters too: crossings of busy streets, and a journey that fits in with your own commute.
If you are a foreigner: what to watch for
For the catchment school, what counts is the place where you actually live, not the registration of your stay. If you rent a flat during construction, then in scenario B your child will go to the catchment school for the rented address and may change school after you move. Plan for a new commute and a new environment. According to GUS, in 2025 the construction of multi-family buildings in Poland took 24.8 months on average, so if you reserve early in construction, the dates rarely coincide with recruitment.
During construction you pay rent and make payments into the escrow account (mieszkaniowy rachunek powierniczy), which the buyer pays after each construction stage is completed, according to the schedule (art. 8 ust. 1-3 of the Developer Act, consolidated text Dz.U. 2026 item 880). So you count the transfer date from the prospectus twice: for your rental budget and for the school calendar.
The catchment resolution and the information prospectus are in Polish. You sign the declaration of residence under pain of criminal liability, so sign it only if you understand every sentence. A foreigner receives a PESEL number automatically when registering a stay of more than 30 days; if you cannot register and need a PESEL, you apply at any municipal office (urząd gminy); the service is free (gov.pl, as at October 2026). If the child has no PESEL, the application states the series and number of the passport or another identity document (art. 151 ust. 1 pkt 1 of the Education Law).
FAQ
What should I check about schools before paying a reservation fee?
Three things: the year your child will start Year 1, the exact address of the building (street and number, if assigned), and whether the planned date of transfer of ownership in the information prospectus (prospekt informacyjny) falls before applications for Year 1 open. The catchment area is set by a municipal council resolution, so get the answer in writing from the district office or the school (art. 39 ust. 5 and 5aa of the Education Law, as at October 2026).
Does the catchment school have to accept my child?
Yes, if the family lives in the catchment area. Children who live there are admitted to Year 1 on the basis of an application, without a competition (art. 130 ust. 5 and art. 133 ust. 1 of the Education Law, as at October 2026). Children from outside the area take part in recruitment and are admitted if the school has free places (art. 133 ust. 2).
What if the flat is handed over after Year 1 recruitment?
You apply from your current address, to your current catchment school. After you move, the new catchment school admits a child who lives in its area, including during the school year (art. 130 ust. 2 of the Education Law, as at October 2026).
Can a family put the address of a flat they have not moved into yet on the application?
The application includes a declaration of the place of residence of the parents and child, made under pain of criminal liability for false statements (art. 151 of the Education Law, as at October 2026). A flat under construction that you have not moved into is hard to treat as a place of residence, so give the address where you actually live on the day you apply.
How far can the school be from home?
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 provides free transport with supervision or reimburses public transport costs when parents take the child (art. 39 ust. 2-3 of the Education Law, as at October 2026).
When do parents of a child born in 2020 need to look for a school?
Compulsory schooling begins in the school year of the calendar year in which the child turns 7 (art. 35 ust. 2 of the Education Law, as at October 2026). A child born in 2020 starts Year 1 in September 2027, and the managing authority sets the recruitment dates by the end of January 2027 (art. 154 ust. 1 pkt 1).
Have you chosen an estate and are arranging a visit to the developer’s sales office? Write to us before the first visit. We will register you as our clients, go to the sales office together, ask about the building’s address, go through the information prospectus and the draft contract with you to set the completion date against Year 1 recruitment, and point out what to ask the developer or a lawyer. We serve clients in seven languages. You do not pay us a fee for help with buying a flat from a developer. Our remuneration on the primary market comes from agreements with developers.
Jawno · +48 692 649 839 · infojawno@gmail.com
This text is for information only and is not legal advice. Legal position as at October 2026.