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Public school zones and points in Andalusia

March 20, 2025

Table of Contents

In this post, we’ll take a closer look at how the public-school zones and the points system work in Andalusia. If you are trying to enroll your kid in a public school in Andalusia for the first time, you’ll like our post on how to apply to a school place in Spain; here, though, we will discuss everything that happens before and after that: how the zoning works, how points to enter into schools are assigned, how to change schools and how to get a spot in the following school level – all with useful links. 😉

How are school places assigned?

School places are assigned by the government, based on a points system in which the residential address of the child has a major influence, followed by the workplace of one of the parents and by a series of other factors that can assign points, such as the existence of people with disabilities in the family, low income, family size (large families get more points), etc.

The points system works like this:
– you’ll get 14 points for the school of your zone – meaning the school that serves your address, as stated by your padrón – and 10 points for the schools in the surrounding areas or
– you get 10 points for the school of the zone where your workplace is located (not 10 points per parent; there is space to fill only one workplace in the form) and 6 for the surrounding school zones.

You choose if you want your points to be related to your home or to your workplace. On top of that, you can get extra points if any of these apply:
– If the child has some developmental limitation, it can count to up to 4 points; a sibling or parent with such limitation counts to up to 3 points, depending on the severity of the issue;
– being part of a large family (3 or more kids) or being raised by only one parent or guardian can count up to 3 points.

Each of the factors that assign points need to be accompanied by proof; there are a few more factors that can add up points – and here is a link to a page where you can simulate your own total! Once the points are assigned, it is a bit of a competition – whoever has more points for a given school has priority over the school places available.

The form used to apply for a school place has spaces for choosing up to five schools. It is rare, though, that one gets to have enough points to actually choose a school other than the one assigned to their zone or close to their workplace, as the residential and workplace addresses give so many points.

In case there are more students applying to a given school than places, one of two things can happen: either some kids are assigned to another school where there are places, or the school deals with more students than they expected – which is often the case, particularly when there are more kids than school spots within the school zone.

Example of zones and the points system in practice

I know this is all a bit confusing, so I’ll try to clarify with an example. Suppose John is a father that lives and works in Calle de la Cruz, in Torremolinos (marked with a pin, in the image below). He checks the Map of Andalusian schools and realizes that he would like to enroll his kid in CEIP Benyamina, which is close to his home, but the school corresponding to his zone (in blue) is CEIP San Miguel, much further. Will he be able to do it?

John gets 14 points to CEIP San Miguel, but only 10 points for CEIP Benyamina (as listed on the left of the image; 14 puntos por domicilio familiar under CEIP San Miguel and 10 puntos por domicilio familiar under CEIP Benyamina). He knows that all the families that actually live in the zone of his preferred school already start out with 14 points.

Situation A

John is a single parent of 4 kids, one of which has special needs. He gets 6 extra points in total for his particular situation, leaving him with 20 points for CEIP San Miguel and 16 points for CEIP Benyamina. This is more points than most kids that live in the zone of Benyamina have for that school, and therefore, as long as John puts Benyamina as his preferred school when filling the Anexo III form, he is very likely to get a spot there!

Situation B

John is married, has only one child and no one with special needs in his immediate family. He doesn’t get anymore points than those related to his address. His only chance of getting a spot in Benyamina is if there are spaces left after all the kids in the zone have already been assigned a place, and after all other solicitants that have either 13, 12 or 11 points have gotten a spot too. It’s unlikely that John manages to get a place in Benyamina in this situation.

After getting a school place, do we need to re-enroll every year?

No, we don’t. Once a school is assigned, kids can go there year after year, until they finish the cycles offered by the school. By school cycles I mean infantil, primaria and secundaria (pre-school, elementary and middle school).

What happens after completing a school cycle?

As a rule, the child is automatically enrolled in the school of the next cycle correspondent to the zone where the family lives, according to the page of frequently asked questions of the Junta de Andalucia. There is no need for the parents to take any action.

In the Map of Andalusian schools, you can actually click on each school on the map (not on the list; clicking on the list will show the school on the map) and it will open a screen with tabs; clicking in the last one, Adscripciones, shows what schools send students there and what school their students are sent to!

The exception to this situation is when the child qualifies equally to two or more schools. Qualifying equally for two or more schools can happen when a school zone has more than one public school or is served by both public schools and concertados. In this case, the school the child attends should inform the family about it; the family should fill the form – Anexo III, again – and point out their preference. I didn’t find further information on how exactly this works, though, or on what happens if no action is taken. I suppose the government chooses.

What about the Concertados?

Concertados are private schools subsidized by the government. While public schools are free of charge – and often even provide the schoolbooks for free – the concertados charge a monthly fee, much lower than a regular private school in Spain, though. Enrollment into a concertado follows the exact same procedure as for the public schools – same time, documents, form, points, etc.

The number of concertado schools per city varies a lot in Andalusia – Benalmadena has only one, Torremolinos has at least two, Malaga has many – and this has a bit of impact on the points system. In Benalmadena, all residents get 14 points for the concertado school – meaning, no matter where in Benalmadena one lives, they have 14 points for the school in their zone and for the concertado. Competition is, therefore, quite high for that school, because the number of possible applicants is big.

The concertados are not, necessarily, better than the public schools, but they are certainly different: they offer longer school hours and charge extra for extra classes, for instance. I believe the long school-hours to be particularly attractive for those families in which the parents work full-time, as the public schools in general finish at 2 pm (with possible extensions up to 4 pm), and taking the kid back home at those times would be complicated when the adults are at work.

The concertados are also a good option for those families that are not satisfied with the public schools they have been assigned. For those families that have the full 14 points only for the school they are avoiding and for the concertado, this last school can be the only acceptable option where they have a real chance to get a place, as for schools in other zones the family would have, at best, 10 points only to start with.

How to change to another public school?

Moving to another zone or having more children… Just kidding (sort of). Well, every March one can re-do the process of applying to a new school and try to be assigned a different one, but as we have seen from the first question (about how school places are assigned), the residential address has a very large weight on that decision, which is essentially points-based. This means that unless the family has moved to another zone or has had more children, the family will get the same number of points for each school as before and will probably not be able to beat the competition against the families of the other zone.

One has real chances to get a spot in another school if:
– there are other public schools of the same level serving the same area, something that happens in large cities such as Malaga, but much less often in towns;
– one has lots of extra points for having many kids, having someone with a disability in the family and/or being a single parent;
– one is trying to get in or out of a concertado. Well, a concertado is a private school, but the enrollment process is the same as that of a public school, as we’ve seen before. The problem here, though, is that the competition for a concertado is big.

I don’t think personal preferences would really do the trick here – there are no points assigned to living very close to a school of another zone, unfortunately, nor for preferences – though there is a form that allows to request a change of school based on a few unique situations such as bulling or gender violence – link here (check Anexo IX in admisión).

Spanish School-related vocabulary

We’ve dealt with some of this vocabulary in the post that explained the school system for foreigners, but let’s do a quick recap of the main vocabulary you’re certain to meet while looking for schools in Spain:

EI stands for Educación Infantil (pre-school), intended for kids aged 0 to 5. You will also find this level being called INF. The schools that offer only this level of studies are referred to as CEI, which means Centro de Educación Infantil.
EP stands for Educación Primaria (elementary) intended for kids aged 6 to 11. You will also find this level being called PRI. The schools that offer only this level of studies are referred to as CEPR, which means Centro de Educación Primaria.
EIP stands for Educación Infantil y Primaria (pre-school and elementary). These schools offer both of the previous cycles and are referred to as CEIP, which means Centro de Educación Infantil y Primaria.
CDP means Centro Docente Privado (private educational center) – what we usually call Concertado. They can offer any, all or only some of the school cycles. Notice that not all private schools are CDP; only the concertados use this acronym.
ESO stands for Educación Secundaria Obligatória (mandatory middle school), intended for kids aged 12 to 16. The schools that offer this level of studies are referred to as IES, which means Instituto de Educación Secundaria.
BACH and BP stand for Bachillerato (baccalaureate), intended for those aged 16 to 18. This level is offered in some of the IES.

There are plenty more acronyms, mostly related to professional education or specific courses, such as diving or dancing. We limited this list to the ones related to the core of the educational system, though.

List of useful official links related to education in Andalusia

List of every public school in each city or town in Andalusia. Just find the province and then the city in the dropdown menus shown.

Map of Andalusian schools. Super useful; find the province and city in the dropdown menus, then fill in your address (street and number) and the school level you are looking for. It will highlight the public schools and concertados that serve your address! The map we’ve used on the example of ‘John in Torremolinos’ is from this site; clicking on the schools in the map returns a lot of interesting information, including where their students go by default to study the following level!

Education related forms. When applying for a school (first time or not), you’ll need to fill in an admisión form; once a place is assigned, a second for is need for enrollment (matriculación). Such forms are on this page, and then some.

Estudiar – Junta de Andalucía. The general page of education in Andalusia.

FAQ. A page of the Junta de Andalucía with a list of frequently asked questions about the educational system.

Extra: this is not a link, but a phone dedicated to solving doubts about all the educational process! I found it on this page; I opted to copy it here, just in case: 900 848 000.

public school zones in Andalusia - phone for questions about the school system

Conclusion

So much to absorb!! But hopefully, now you get the hang of it – if not, at least you have a lot of links and even a phone number to help you on your quest for a great school. I don’t think the system is exactly simple, but it does make sense – even if, like John in our example, I’ll soon have to go kinda far to take Kiddo to ESO – kids grow so fast, don’t they? The other day this boy was learning the colors! I wish ou a great school and I believe you’ll like the public schools in Spain – up to now I’m very happy with ours. 😉