The Shock Plan Against School Segregation in Barcelona aims to reduce educational inequalities by promoting a more balanced distribution of students across schools, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. It combines data-driven identification of vulnerable students, reserved school places and targeted financial support to ensure equitable access to education. Strong coordination across municipal services and continuous evaluation support implementation, helping to foster equal opportunities, improve educational outcomes and strengthen social cohesion.
A shock plan against school segregation in Barcelona
Abstract
Barcelona’s Shock Plan Against School Segregation aims to reduce educational inequalities by promoting a more balanced distribution of students across schools and limiting segregation between public and publicly subsidised private schools. The policy responds to the recognition that school segregation has significant negative effects on students’ academic performance, social mobility and equality of opportunity. Introduced in the 2019/2020 school year, the objectives of the initiative are to improve educational outcomes, foster social inclusion and strengthen equal opportunities by ensuring that all students, regardless of their socio-economic background, have access to quality and socially diverse schools, supporting long-term educational and labour market outcomes. The policy therefore contributes to enhancing social cohesion and reducing long-term inequalities linked to educational trajectories. While not formally part of it, this plan aligns with the “equal opportunities” principles of Barcelona’s broader strategy Barcelona Impulsa, itself aligned with the European Pillar of Social Rights.
Shock Plan Against School Segregation in Barcelona
Country: Spain
City: Barcelona
EU member state: Yes
Geographic scale: City
City size: Large (1 700 000 in the city, 5 080 000 in the FUA residents)
Date launched: 2019
Current status: Ongoing
Policy pillar(s): Education
Target group(s): Children, Youth, Low-income households
Funding and budget:
Total budget: EUR 28 000 000 (2025-2026 education year)
Funding sources: Local government
EU funds/programmes: Not applicable
School segregation has been a persistent challenge in Barcelona, with evidence over the past two decades highlighting the role of school choice mechanisms and unequal access to information in driving disparities across schools. Analyses pointed to significant imbalances in the distribution of socio-economic disadvantaged students, with Barcelona identified as one of the most segregated cities in Catalonia. By 2016/2017, the dissimilarity index for disadvantaged students reached 0.54 in primary education, higher than for foreign students, while public schools enrolled around three times more disadvantaged students than publicly subsidised private schools. These findings highlighted structural inequalities in access to schools, driven by both systemic barriers (e.g. economic constraints) and behavioural dynamics (e.g. self-selection and unequal access to information).
The Shock Plan Against School Segregation prioritises reducing inequalities in access to education by ensuring a more balanced distribution of students across schools. The policy focuses particularly on socially disadvantaged students, who face the greatest barriers to accessing certain schools and are most exposed to the negative effects of segregation. The initiative targets key transition points in the education system, i.e. entry into preschool and lower secondary education, where school allocation decisions have the strongest impact on long-term educational trajectories. By intervening early, the policy aims to prevent the concentration of disadvantaged students and foster more socially mixed learning environments from the outset.
A central element of the reform was the shift from fragmented and incomplete identification of disadvantaged students to a coordinated, data-driven approach. Previously, teams of educational social workers operating across the city’s ten districts were responsible for identifying vulnerable students. Once identified, these students were then reported to schools, which handled registration, resulting in inconsistent and underestimated figures. The plan introduced a centralised system based on clear, harmonised criteria, including eligibility for social benefits, to identify vulnerable students by education authorities. This was supported by the creation of a city-wide Vulnerable Students Registry, integrating data from education and social services into a single system. This improved targeting framework significantly enhanced the accuracy and coverage of identification, with the share of recognised vulnerable students increasing from 4.7% to 21.8% between 2018-2019 and 2023-2024. More broadly, the approach strengthened coordination across municipal services and provided a robust evidence base to guide policy implementation.
The plan combines three main levers: improved identification of disadvantaged students; a revised quota policy; and targeted financial support to ensure effective access. Although the quota policy predated the Shock Plan, the strategy changed significantly: whereas all schools had previously applied a common quota, the Shock Plan introduced school-specific quotas to achieve a more equitable distribution. In practice, all schools, across pre-primary, primary and secondary levels, are required to allocate places to disadvantaged students based on harmonised criteria. Financial support is provided to schools to cover fees that would otherwise be charged to families, thereby removing economic barriers to enrolment and ensuring that access to schooling is effectively free for vulnerable students.
The policy is supported by a strong evaluation framework conducted by a partner university (Barcelona Autonomous University) to assess its impacts on school segregation, concentration and stratification over time. Across Barcelona, between 2018/2019 and 2023/2024, desegregation policies led to a 26.3% decrease in the Dissimilarity Index1 and a 61.4% reduction in the Adjusted Isolation Index2 for socially disadvantaged students, compared with a counterfactual scenario without policy implementation (Zancajo, González Motos and Quilabert, 2026[69]). In the meantime, the gap in average standardised test scores for vulnerable and non-vulnerable 16-year-old students narrowed from 9.3 to 6.5 points between 2020/2021 and 2023/2024, with scores increasing for both vulnerable and non-vulnerable students (respectively by 5.6 points and 1.4 point). The evaluation also highlights the importance of contextual factors, such as residential segregation, local socio-economic composition, and the diversity of school supply, in shaping outcomes.
Build data-driven targeting systems to improve policy effectiveness. Moving from fragmented identification to a centralised, data-driven approach can significantly improve the detection and targeting of vulnerable populations. Integrating administrative data across sectors (education, social services, etc.) allows for more accurate, transparent and equitable policy design.
Embed strong evaluation frameworks from the outset. Rather than relying on aggregate performance data, embedding frameworks that monitor granular data from day one helps assess in real-time whether the education system is maintaining a balanced social mix and enable adjustments if needed.
Shock Plan Against Segregation (PDF): Presentación de PowerPoint
Redesigning choice to tackle school segregation: The impact of Barcelona’s desegregation policies (PDF) : (PDF) Redesigning choice to tackle school segregation: The impact of Barcelona's desegregation policies
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