Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation

¹The Can­tons are re­spons­ible for the sys­tem of school edu­ca­tion.

²They shall en­sure the pro­vi­sion of an ad­equate ba­sic edu­ca­tion that is avail­able to all chil­dren. Ba­sic edu­ca­tion is man­dat­ory and is man­aged or su­per­vised by the state. At state schools it is free of charge.²

³The Can­tons shall en­sure that ad­equate spe­cial needs edu­ca­tion is provided to all chil­dren and young people with dis­ab­il­it­ies up to the age of 20.³

⁴Where har­mon­isa­tion of school edu­ca­tion is not achieved by means of co­ordin­a­tion in the areas of school entry age and com­puls­ory school at­tend­ance, the dur­a­tion and ob­ject­ives of levels of edu­ca­tion, and the trans­ition for one level to an­oth­er, as well as the re­cog­ni­tion of qual­i­fic­a­tions, the Con­fed­er­a­tion shall is­sue reg­u­la­tions to achieve such har­mon­isa­tion.⁴

⁵The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall reg­u­late the start of the school year.⁵

⁶The Can­tons shall par­ti­cip­ate in the draft­ing of fed­er­al le­gis­la­tion on school edu­ca­tion that af­fects can­ton­al re­spons­ib­il­it­ies, and spe­cial ac­count shall be taken of their opin­ions.⁶