This country profile is part of a collective effort by the network members to map matching practices across Europe. If you find it useful and want to refer to it in your own work, please refer to it as “Andersson, Tommy (2017), Matching practices for elementary schools – Sweden, MiP Country Profile 24.”
Relevant country background
In Sweden, children have the right to start preschool from the age of six. Preschool is not compulsory but in practice around 98 percent of six-year-olds attend preschool. Municipalities are obliged to offer and arrange for preschool for all pupils that request to be enrolled. School becomes compulsory for children from the autumn term of the year they reach the age of seven, and compulsory school attendance ceases at the end of the spring term of their 9th school year (i.e., by the time children are 16 years old). Preschools are typically combined with primary schools but secondary schools are separate. As a consequence, most children have to change schools upon finishing primary school.