Territorial Review Copenhagen - Region Hovedstaden

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municipality, which in principle must take in students up to the limits of
their capacity. If the school is oversubscribed, admission is based on place
of residence, and those living within a school‘s catchment area are given
first priority. Students can also opt for a private school, of which almost 80
are spread over the city. This option is frequently exercised: one out of four
students attends private schools. Fees are low, as private schools are
subsidised by the states, and therefore, choosing private schools is a
potential option for most families (Rangvid, 2006).
Relatively more Danish than immigrant families are opting out of local
schools. If all students living in a catchment area attended their local school,
the highest percentage of immigrants at schools in Copenhagen should be
63%. However, as a result of school choice options, the percentage of
immigrants is 94% at the school with the highest concentration of
immigrants. Looser links between residential choices and eligibility of
public schools might make it more attractive for well-off Danish families to
locate in neighbourhoods with higher immigrant concentrations and make it
easier for immigrant children to go to schools in other neighbourhoods.
The City of Copenhagen recently established a promising initiative to
stimulate more mixed schools. This programme, the Copenhagen Model for
Integration, uses quotas to make sure that schools that have a low percentage
of ethnic students reserve a certain number of places for students from
catchments with a high ethnic concentration (Box 2.2). Free busing to the
new schools is provided. A second objective of the programme is to make
schools that have high numbers of immigrant students more attractive to
native Danish households. The pilot programme started in 2006 is gradually
being rolled out. Meanwhile, this initiative has coincided with more
transparency as regards data on the schools. In 2007, the City of
Copenhagen published its quality report of the public schools within its
boundaries. For each public school in Copenhagen, a quality report is now
publicly available that evaluates schools on a set of performance criteria
(Municipality of Copenhagen, 2007).