Key:school
 school
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The type of school. 
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| Group: education |
| Used on these elements |
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| Useful combination |
| See also |
| Status: in use |
| Tools for this tag |
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This key is generally used to classify an amenity=school by its type.
Values
Some of the most common values correspond to local age-based school classification systems:
- school=kindergarten – redundant to amenity=kindergarten
- school=elementary – overlaps with isced:level=1, 2, and/or 3 in some countries
- school=primary – overlaps with isced:level=1 in some countries
- school=secondary – overlaps with isced:level=2 and/or 3 in some countries
- school=vocational – vocational school or trade school (secondary or post-secondary school that teaches professional or technical job skills); overlaps with isced:level=4 in some countries. In parts of the United States, this commonly overlaps with isced:level=2 and/or isced:level=3 (for example, in the Baltimore City school system, most high schools are vocational schools of some form, with each having a different focus, such as healthcare professions
healthcare professions, or design design). In these cases it may be helpful to use a key like training=* in order to tag a vocational focus separately.
Other common values indicate a specialization, which may overlap with one of the age-based classifications above:
- school=music – redundant to amenity=music_school; see also training=music
- school=sport – see also training=sport
- school=blind – schools for the blind and visually impaired people
- school=special_education_needs – Special education schools.
- school=art – see also training=art
school=yes is another common value that in most cases should be removed in favor of amenity=school. However, in some cases, it may indicate some other relationship to a school that needs individual cleanup attention.
Subkeys and regional mapping schemes
Normally, tag values are spelled according to British English, but many local school classification systems employ words that do not translate one-for-one to British English. Several countries have adopted subkeys that accept values in the local language without the need for translation. Some common country-dependent subkeys as of May 2022:
- 🇧🇫 school:BF=*
- 🇧🇯 school:BJ=*
- 🇨🇩 school:CD=*
- 🇨🇲 school:CM=*
- 🇩🇪 school:DE=*
- 🇫🇷 school:FR=*
- 🇭🇹 school:HT=*
- 🇲🇬 school:MG=*
- 🇸🇳 school:SN=*
Other countries have a tagging scheme or tagging conventions that is compatible with school=*:
Values in the United Kingdom
These are the values that should be used in the United Kingdom, according to how schools are legally classified.
- school=primary – primary school
- school=secondary – secondary school
- school=middle_deemed_primary – A
middle school legally deemed as a primary school. - school=middle_deemed_secondary – A middle school legally deemed as a secondary school.
Note: Values may be combined with semicolons, e.g. school=primary;secondary to denote an all-through school.
Other uses
School bus routes
On type=route and type=route_master relations, school=yes indicates that a route is intended for transporting students. For example, in conjunction with route=bus, it distinguishes a school bus route from a general-purpose bus route. As of May 2022, this combination is present on 79 route relations, most of them in Paris.
See also
- training=*
- Education features
- Key:school:* namespace
- grades=*
- school_bus=* for indicating whether a school bus (as opposed to other kinds of buses) can legally travel on a roadway or use a parking lot
Possible tagging mistakes
School entrances
Some mappers have tagged the entrance to a school building or school grounds as school=entrance in the past. However this tag/value combination is now deprecated; entrance=* is the approved key for any kind of entrance, including school entrances (the main entrance would be entrance=main).