Some Vienna families use temporary moves to seek preferred school places

Some families in Vienna appear to be using temporary changes of address to improve their chances of securing a place at a particular school, according to a study reported by ORF.

Researchers at the Vienna University of Economics and Business analysed anonymised registration data from around 330,000 children in Vienna over 94 months. Researcher Anita Zednik identified so-called “return moves”, in which children are registered at another address shortly before school registration and then registered back at their original residence.

According to the study, these short-term address changes occur more than four times as often immediately before school registration as outside that period. The practice remains rare overall.

The study found that not all families use this option equally. Such address changes are more common among families with higher levels of education and Austrian citizenship. Zednik said this could be a factor that reinforces existing educational inequalities.

The researchers also surveyed more than 1,300 parents of first-grade pupils about their trust in the school-place allocation system. About three quarters of parents who were unaware of such strategies considered the system fair. Among parents who knew someone who had carried out such a “fake move”, the share was only about half, according to the study.

The findings and their possible implications for fairness and equal opportunities are also discussed in the Vienna University of Economics and Business podcast “Welthandelsplatz 1”.