Sometimes, children may have to change schools due to a change in their place of residence or other reasons. Please find some recommendations below which will help you ensure a smooth and compliant process.
If changing schools is necessary due to a change in the place of residence
- Start looking into your child’s studying opportunities in the new place of residence in good time. Contact the education official of the city or rural municipality which will be your new place of residence to find out the student place which will be allocated to your child. The above also applies in the case of moving abroad.
- If you would like to pick your child’s school, contact the preferred school and inquire about their vacant student places. In the case of moving abroad, find out whether it is possible for the parents to pick their child’s school in the country that you intend to move to and what the conditions are for doing so.
- Ask the education official of the rural municipality/city about the document which must be submitted to secure a student place for your child and for the admission of the child to the school. If you are moving abroad, keep in mind that different counties and different schools may ask you to submit different documents. Sometimes the documents must be translated or certified with an apostille by a notary.
Once you have secured a new student place for your child, submit an application for the removal of the child from the list of pupils to the school where your child is currently registered.
Please note! Make sure you do not forget to submit an application for removal of the pupil from the list to school if a child who has not passed the minimum age of leaving school is moving abroad as the school and the local government will otherwise be searching for your child due to non-performance of the duty to attend school.
Please specify your contact details (telephone number, email address) in the application for leaving school to allow the school to contact you and ask for details about the child’s further studies, if necessary. In the case of a child who has not passed the minimum school-leaving age (i.e. is attending basic school), specify the name and location of the school where the child will be continuing their studies in the application.
Submit to the local government the details of the child’s new place of residence.
Upon continuing their studies in Estonia, the child will commence studying at the level which they would be at based on the period of their studies at a foreign educational institution if they had continued their studies in Estonia and been transferred to the next level at the end of each academic year. Based on an application submitted by a parent, the child may continue their studies at a lower level, if necessary. The teachers’ council of the school will assess the level which the child is at based on their knowledge.
Documents issued upon leaving school
In the event of leaving in the end of an academic year, the following documents are issued:
- report card for the grade which they have completed
- extract from the register of students
- medical record.
In the event of leaving in the end of a quarter or trimester of the academic year, the following documents are issued:
- report card with the grades for the quarters or trimesters of the academic year which the pupil has completed
- physician’s note about the child’s health.
In the event of leaving in the middle of a quarter or trimester of the academic year, the following documents are issued:
- report card with the grades for the quarters or trimesters of the academic year which the pupil has completed
- physician’s note about the child’s health
- results report for the current quarter or trimester of the academic year.
The level at which the pupil will continue their studies is determined by the teachers’ council in the following cases:
- the pupil arrives from a foreign educational institution and has not previously studied in Estonia
- the pupil does not have a document certifying their education
- the pupil studied based on a different national curriculum at their previous school
- the pupil studied at a school for students with special educational needs or a sanatorium school based on the different number of academic years, list of subjects, or number of lessons established for such schools.