The registration period for the 2012/13 school year opened last week and it will run until the 31st of March. The registration process is for children, who are entering the public school system for the first time or if they are changing schools.

The Junta de Andalucía's Education Department will use the same point system as last year for placement preference, and will also maintain the stiffer penalties it introduced last year for parents caught submitting false data on their children's application form in order to improve their chance of getting into their school of choice. In most cases there are enough available places to meet demand but in those schools where there are more applications than available slots, the point system is used to select the students that will be admitted.

The most heavily-weighted criterion is having a sibling already enrolled at the same school, which is worth 16 points.  The second important factor is the proximity of the family's home to the school which gives 14 points, while proximity of a parent's workplace to the school is 10 points.  Having a parent working at the school itself is worth four points.

Other factors which are awarded with points are for example family income (up to two points depending on income level); disability (two points if affecting the student, one point if affecting one of the parents and 0.5 points if affecting a sibling); and being from a single-parent family or family with three or more children (two points). The Junta is maintaining the policy they introduced last year of stripping all of the points from applications found to contain falsified information, meaning the student will have zero preference for placement in the school of choice.  Prior to last year, only the points related to the falsified information were docked.

Registration forms are available at all schools. Once all the applications are in, schools at which there are more applicants than available slots will post a list by April 16 giving the total score for each child, after which parents will have 10 days to submit appeals.  The final list showing which students are accepted for enrolment will be posted on May 10. 

Source://www.costa-news.com