School District - Europe

Europe

Outside the United States, other jurisdictions often will have autonomous districts (or equivalent) authorities to represent various groups seeking autonomy, such as linguistic groups, or religious groups. The U.S. school districts, which tend to be based largely on geographical divisions, generally avoid these issues, as English is such a dominant language, and religion is largely excluded from public education by the legal doctrine of the separation of church and state and the widespread existence of private schools run by religious organizations. In much of the world, religious (confessional), linguistic, and other divisions, are a significant factor in organizing school districts or equivalent authorities.

In England and Wales, school boards were established in 1870, and abolished in 1902, with county council and county borough councils becoming the Local Education Authorities.

In France, the system of the carte scolaire was dismantled by the beginning of the 2007 school year. More school choice has been given to French students, however, priority is given to those that meet the following criteria:

• students with disabilities
• students on scholarships or special academic merit
• students who meet "social cohesion" criteria (essentially to diversify the school population)
• students who require specialized medical attention from a hospital
• students who want to study a course offered only by the school
• students who have siblings that attend the school
• students who live close proximity to the school

In Italy, school districts were established in 1974 "Provvedimenti Delegati sulla scuola" ("Assigned Laws about the school"). Each district must contain a minimum of 10,000 inhabitants. The federal government attempted to link the local schools with local society and culture and local governments. The school districts were dissolved in 2003 by the "legge finanziaria" (law about the government budget) in an attempt to trim the national budget.