PlaceDossier / Questions
Which school catchment is my property in?
In BC, the school district draws a catchment around each school, and children living in it come first for a seat there. A report names the catchment the lot's middle falls in where the district's boundaries are open data, and the nearest public schools everywhere.
The report opens at this answer, with the lot drawn on the map and every other check alongside. A PID (on the tax notice or title) always finds the lot; an address works when it's an exact match.
What the answer means
- Where it's shown
- Catchments are shown for Surrey Schools (School District No. 36) (Surrey and White Rock) and North Vancouver School District (School District No. 44) (the City and District of North Vancouver), the districts whose boundaries are published as open data we may use. Elsewhere the report names the nearest public schools and says to ask the district.
- What a catchment gives
- Children living in a school's catchment come first when the school takes new students, ahead of children from outside it. A seat still depends on room in the grade, so a full school can send a new student to another one nearby.
- Boundaries change
- Districts redraw catchments as neighbourhoods grow and new schools open, usually for the next September. The report names the school year the map was read in; check the district's own lookup for the year your children start.
- Programs of choice
- French immersion, Montessori, fine arts and other programs have their own boundaries or apply by lottery or application, separate from the catchment.
- The district decides
- The district's own address lookup is the final word: the North Vancouver School District says that where its map and its School Locator differ, the School Locator is used.
A report reads the catchment at the middle of the lot, from the open map; a lot on a boundary or a new address can be assigned differently. Distances to the nearest schools are straight lines. Confirm with the school district before you buy or build.
Source: Elementary and Secondary School Catchments, City of Surrey open data (Open Government Licence – Surrey); School Catchment Areas, District of North Vancouver GEOweb open data (Open Government Licence – North Vancouver); BC Schools K-12, Ministry of Education and Child Care (Open Government Licence – British Columbia).
Districts covered
2 school districts publish their catchment boundaries as open data we may use.
- Surrey Schools (School District No. 36)
- Surrey and White Rock. The district's own lookup: surreyschools.ca/demographicsandfacilitiesplanning/school-locator
- North Vancouver School District (School District No. 44)
- the City and District of North Vancouver. The district's own lookup: sd44.ca/schools/school-locator
Checked and not shown, because the boundaries aren't open data we may use (checked 2026-10-04): Vancouver (SD39): the Vancouver School Board publishes shapefiles, but under its terms of use (personal, non-commercial use only); Delta (SD37): the catchments are on the City of Delta's web map, but not in its open data catalogue; Greater Victoria (SD61): maps on ArcGIS Online with no licence stated; Abbotsford (SD34): the City of Abbotsford's open data has the catchment lines under its open licence, but without school names; Burnaby (SD41), Coquitlam (SD43), Richmond (SD38), Central Okanagan (SD23), Nanaimo-Ladysmith (SD68) and other districts: an address lookup or PDF maps only, no open data. Sources.
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