All designated neighbourhood government schools (referred to as a local school) have a school zone. This does not include schools with specific enrolment criteria including English language schools, selective entry high schools, or community schools. Specialist schools also do not have school zones and have special enrolment criteria.
Every Victorian child has the legislated right to enrol at their local government school. A school zone does not restrict a student's choice to seek enrolment at other government schools. Students can enrol at a school outside their zone if the school has sufficient accommodation and it aligns with the school’s enrolment management implementation plan, where applicable.
For students residing in metropolitan Melbourne, Ballarat, Bendigo or Geelong, the local school is usually the nearest government school in a straight line from the student’s permanent residential address. In any other area of Victoria, it is usually the nearest school by the shortest practical route, recognising the additional travel distances often experienced in regional settings.
It is recognised that some school zones need to be aligned with geographical and structural barriers that significantly impede direct school access such as rivers and freeways. A main road with pedestrian crossings, however, is not usually considered to be a barrier to accessing a school.
School zones are reviewed annually and may be adjusted to reflect new schools opening, changing provision at existing schools (e.g., relocating a campus or changing year levels offered), improving school accessibility, or managing enrolment demand.
The school zones ZIP file consists of distinct spatial datasets for primary school zones and school zones for each year of secondary school, acknowledging the different year levels offered by schools. The spatial datasets can be used in conjunction with the school locations CSV file also available on data.vic.gov.au. School zones have been published on the findmyschool.vic.gov.au website. More information on Victorian school zones can found at https://www.vic.gov.au/school-zones.
School zones have been produced in GDA94 VicGrid projection (EPSG: 3111) using locations that represent the front of the school or driveway access. The location point for all government schools is taken from the department’s register of school locations. Voronoi polygons define the measure of straight-line distance and road classes 0 to 7 in the VicMap Roads dataset have been used to define the measure of shortest practical route.
The Victorian government school zones are intended to be relied on by parents and families for the purposes of making enrolment decisions for their children. They should not be relied on for making property purchase decisions, or by any party other than parents and families seeking to enrol their child in a government school.