School and Kindergarten in Slovakia: How to Enrol a Child and What the Deadlines Are

Since 1 September 2025, education in Slovakia has been compulsory for foreign nationals’ children — including children with odídenec status. This is not a recommendation but a legal requirement, and it comes with specific deadlines. Here is who it applies to, how to enrol a child in a kindergarten or school, and what documents you need.

Who compulsory education applies to and by when

The rule is simple, but it is tied to your date of arrival:

A child who arrived in Slovakia before 1 January 2025 — must be enrolled in school from 1 September 2025.
Arrived between 1 January and 31 August 2025 — the parent had to submit an enrolment application within 3 months, that is, by 1 December 2025.
Arrived after 1 September 2025 — the parent has 3 months to submit the application.

The purpose of the rule is to give every child an equal right to education. Children study in Slovak schools on the same terms as Slovak pupils, and various forms of support are available.

Standard enrolment deadlines

Primary school (ZŠ): applications are submitted between 1 and 30 April for the following school year. The exact date and place are set by the school’s founding authority, and the head teacher publishes them on the school website.
Kindergarten (MŠ): applications between 1 and 31 May.
Compulsory school attendance begins on 1 September after the child has turned 6 and has reached school readiness.

If you arrived outside these windows — that does not mean you have to wait until April. A separate procedure applies to children with temporary refuge status: you contact the head teacher directly.

How to enrol a child, step by step

Sort out your status. First temporary refuge, asylum or subsidiary protection. Without a document confirming your status, or confirming that proceedings have begun, the school cannot accept you.
Find a school. One near where you live. The portal eprihlasky.iedu.sk helps, and the town or municipality publishes information about school catchment areas. If you are getting nowhere, contact the regional school administration office (RÚŠS).
Prepare the documents: proof of status, passport, the child’s birth certificate, the most recent school report, and sometimes a tenancy agreement — the head teacher can confirm the exact list.
Fill in the application. There are bilingual Slovak-Ukrainian forms: “Žiadosť o prijatie na predprimárne vzdelávanie” for kindergarten and “Prihláška na základné vzdelávanie” for school. You can find them on the publishing portal.
Sign and submit. By law it requires the signatures of both legal guardians, apart from certain exceptions. One signature is enough if the parents have agreed on this and have given the head teacher a written statement to that effect. You can submit in person, by post, by courier or as a scan by email.

The order in which schools admit children

The head teacher has to follow a set order of priority:

Pupils with permanent residence in the school catchment area, plus children placed by court decision and people granted asylum.
Children of asylum applicants, and applicants themselves, living in reception centres in that catchment area.
Children of applicants for temporary refuge from Ukraine in that catchment area.
Pupils with permanent residence outside the catchment area and other foreign nationals.

The practical conclusion: your chances are better at a school in the catchment area where you actually live. So when choosing somewhere to live it is worth looking at the school catchment area straight away — more on the districts in the article on which district of Bratislava to live in.

What if you have no documents from the Ukrainian school

This can be sorted out. If you have no school reports or certificates of study, the school will work out the right year group itself. Missing documents are not grounds for refusal.

Moving on to secondary school

For pupils in year 9 of a Slovak school the procedure is standard: the application goes to the head teacher of your own school by 20 February, and the school forwards it on — by 28 February for courses with an aptitude test and by 20 April for the rest.

If the child studies at a Ukrainian school (including online) and wants to move to a Slovak secondary school, they will need to sit a differential examination (rozdielová skúška), the form and content of which are set by the head teacher. A basic knowledge of Slovak is a compulsory requirement: it is taught in all secondary schools.

Educational qualifications are recognised by the regional school administration office — this is the nostrification procedure. More in the article nostrification: what it is and how to do it.

If the child is in Slovakia without their parents

A special procedure applies to children who arrived without a legal guardian (for example, with a grandmother or a brother). The application for temporary refuge is submitted by a court-appointed guardian, and that same person can submit the school enrolment application. Be sure to contact ÚPSVaR — there is a separate procedure in Slovakia for unaccompanied minors.

Official deadlines and rules are published by the Slovak Ministry of Education: rules on compulsory school attendance and how to enrol a child in year one.

If the child is still on the way, start with our article on pregnancy and childbirth in Slovakia: antenatal care, insurance and payments.

Where to get help for free

If you are lost, call the IOM Migration Information Centre: 0850 211 478, Telegram and Signal +421 908 767 853. Advice in Russian and Ukrainian, free of charge.

Lists of schools and universities across Slovakia are in our articles on primary schools and schools and universities. Russian-speaking tutors are in the directory of specialists.

This information has been compiled from public sources, including materials from the Slovak Ministry of Education, and is current as of August 2026. Rules and deadlines change — before you submit anything, check the current conditions on the school’s website or with the RÚŠS.