Rules on school enrolment and placing requests need to be updated, the city council’s education director has said.
Michael Wood is proposing to put in place a new system for the start of the 2014-15 term. At present children transferring to a particular secondary school get priority one status if they attend one of its associated primaries.
Under the new system priority one will go to children who live in the secondary’s geographical catchment area.
That could affect pupils who have, for example, continued to attend their primary school after moving house out of the catchment and may find it harder to go to secondary with their classmates.
Their parents could make a placing request, but there is no guarantee this would be granted.
Mr Wood said: “Families whose child attends their catchment primary school and wish them to attend their catchment secondary school will not be affected by the proposal.
“The majority of children and young people currently attend their catchment school.”
Primary pupils over the city boundary but who would expect to attend secondary in Dundee will still get priority one status.
Mr Wood said the current guidelines were last revised in 1996. Since then there had been big changes to the school estate and a significant increase in the level of provision for pupils with additional support needs.
The new system would allow the education department to manage the school estate efficiently, while still allowing parental choice where possible, and provide clarity on how schools would deal with too many pupils trying to get a place.
Councillors will be asked to approve the education director’s draft proposals next week. This would trigger a public consultation process early next year before a final decision was made.
Education convener Stewart Hunter said: “I am sure that the committee would be very interested to hear the views of parents and carers on these proposals.
“The revisions have come about after huge changes to the school estate in Dundee over the last few years, while we are also looking at more children coming into the system in the future.”