2026

Improved support in school

Published March 17, 2026

The bill contains proposals for amendments to the Education Act (2010:800) aimed at improving support in schools.

The proposals include the following.

It should be clarified in the Education Act that all children and pupils in education shall be given guidance and stimulation with the aim of being able to follow the teaching. The regulation on the guarantee for early support measures and extra adaptations shall be abolished. Instead, standardised tests shall be carried out at the beginning of the autumn term in certain grades in order to identify pupils with support needs. Pupils shall be given support teaching at an early stage in the compulsory school forms, upper secondary school and upper secondary school for pupils with intellectual disabilities in the subjects Swedish, Swedish as a second language and mathematics.

The provisions on special support shall be amended. The responsible teacher or mentor shall notify the principal if a pupil's need for special support needs to be investigated and such need shall be investigated earlier than today. Decisions on special support in smaller teaching groups or as individual teaching shall be facilitated. Decisions on adapted study courses shall only be made if all other possibilities for special support have been exhausted or are deemed unsuitable.

Teachers in municipal adult education shall have access to or the opportunity to consult with personnel with special educational competence.

The amendments to the Education Act are proposed to enter into force on 1 July 2028.

For more information (in Swedish)

Limit on teaching hours

Published March 17, 2026

The bill contains proposals for amendments to the Education Act (2010:800) which aim to create better conditions for teachers and preschool teachers to carry out their teaching duties and increase the attractiveness of the teaching and preschool teaching profession.

A good school starts with teachers being allowed to be teachers – with time to focus on teaching. The government therefore proposes that teachers' time for teaching, planning and follow-up should be regulated. An upper limit should be set for, among other things, how many teaching hours a teacher can have and there should be a lower limit for how much time teachers and preschool teachers should have to plan and follow up their teaching.

In parallel, several measures are proposed to reduce the administrative burden.

It should be made clear in the school's steering document that it is the teacher who leads and makes decisions about teaching. Teaching should be based on curricula that are clearly focused on subject knowledge and basic skills, and the new curricula should be better adapted to children's cognitive development.

For example, teaching in the early grades should be focused on basic knowledge and skills, and more cognitively advanced aspects of the subjects should be introduced gradually.

For more information (in Swedish)

An equivalent grading system

Published March 17, 2026

The bill contains proposals for amendments to the Education Act (2010:800) that will introduce a new, more equitable grading system and a new model for calculating merit. The aim is to more fairly reflect pupils' subject knowledge and counteract grade inflation.

The proposals include the following:

• A new model for calculating pupils' merit values shall be developed, where the merit value shall consist partly of the applicant's grade value and partly of the result from national final exams.
• A grading scale with ten grade levels from 1 to 10, without a sharp limit for pass, shall be introduced in the compulsory school types and the voluntary school types at upper secondary level. When final grading is given in a subject, teachers shall have assessment consultations. Principals shall submit information about grades to an authority.
• National final exams shall be introduced in compulsory school, special school, upper secondary school and municipal adult education at upper secondary level. The exams should be marked centrally.
• To be eligible for a national program in upper secondary school, a minimum merit value of 4 from compulsory school or equivalent shall be required.
• An upper secondary school diploma shall be issued if a pupil has an average grade of 4 or higher on at least 2,250 points including a grade of 4 in upper secondary school work.
• Merit value shall replace grades as a selection criterion when applying to higher education.

The amendments to the Education Act shall mainly enter into force on 1 July 2028. However, for municipal adult education, the amendments shall enter into force on
1 January 2031.

For more information (in Swedish)

2025

The decision has been passed – ten-year compulsory school from autumn 2028

The Parliament has now decided on the legislative amendments to the government bill “A ten-year compulsory school”. The decision means that from autumn 2028, Sweden will have a ten-year compulsory school where the preschool class is replaced by a new year 1.
When the new compulsory school is introduced, the preschool class for six-year-olds will be replaced by a new first year in the school. The new year 1 will become an integrated part of compulsory school, with year 10 becoming the final year. This means that the preschool class will cease to exist as a school type and compulsory school will be extended by one year. 

The corresponding change will be made in compulsory school for pupils with intellectual disabilities, special school and Sami school. The reform also means that students who attend the compulsory school for pupils with intellectual disabilities will have a coherent path through the school system, unlike today when this group does not have their own preschool class. 

More information (in Swedish)

Now all students have the right to staffed school libraries

A well-equipped and staffed school library can, together with teachers, play an important role in developing students' reading skills and learning in all school subjects. The legislative amendments regarding students' rights to staffed school libraries have now come into force.
From 1 July 2025, students must have access to staffed school libraries. Students' access to school libraries today looks very different. As part of reversing the reading crisis Sweden is experiencing, the government has previously presented a bill that will strengthen students' rights to staffed school libraries. The Parliament voted in favour of the Government's bill in November 2024 and now the changes are becoming a reality.

The amendments to the law mean that students should, as a general rule, have access to school libraries at their own school unit. School libraries should refer to a collective, joint and organised activity and have a separate library room. In addition, the amendments to the law mean that requirements should be placed on school libraries to be staffed to such an extent that the purposes of school libraries are achieved. The fact that school libraries are staffed means that a librarian can work actively and regularly with the range and environment of the school library.
Each school principal must also have a library plan that, among other things, specifies how the purposes of the school library are to be achieved and describes how the school library is to function and contribute to students' learning. This can both increase the quality of the activities and strengthen equity.

The legal changes apply to students in preschool, compulsory school and equivalent school types, as well as upper secondary school and upper secondary school for pupils with intellectual disabilities.

More information (in Swedish)

New support for teachers in teaching about mental health

Mental health in the form of stress, anxiety and sleep problems is a growing problem for children and young people, not least in line with increased screen time and social media. To support teachers in teaching in this area, the Government is commissioning the National Agency for Education to develop support materials in the subjects of physical education and health and biology.

The National Agency for Education already offers support to municipalities, principals and teachers that is linked to the area of health. The support materials are broad and mainly aimed at the school's joint student health work. However, there is limited support for teachers on how to work with the area in teaching. The new support materials are intended to support teachers in teaching about factors that affect students' mental health, within the existing course and subject plans in the subjects of physical education and health and biology.

The assignment is given through an amendment to the National Agency for Education's appropriation letter and must be reported to the Government Offices by 29 May 2026.

More information (in Swedish)

A ten-year primary school

The bill contains proposals for amendments to the Education Act aimed at a stronger knowledge school that entail the following: 

• Primary school will be expanded to ten years by ending the preschool class as a school type and replacing it with a new first year in primary school.
• The adapted primary school, special school and Sami school will also be expanded with a new first year, so that the adapted primary school will be ten years, the special school eleven years and the Sami school seven years.
• The new first year means that the primary school will be extended by one year in primary school, the adapted primary school, special school and Sami school and that the guaranteed teaching time will be increased by 534 hours per school type.
• The regulations that apply to the different school types in general will also apply to the new first year, although the education for the students should be adapted to their age.
• Such information about a child shall be submitted as is necessary to facilitate the child's transition, prior to or in connection with the child's transition from preschool or from educational care to compulsory school, adapted compulsory school, special school or Sami school.
• Necessary consequential amendments are made to the Education Act as well as to several other acts. 

The amendments to the Education Act are proposed to enter into force on 1 July 2026 and are applied for the first time in relation to education and other activities conducted after 30 June 2028. Other amendments to the law are proposed to enter into force on 1 July 2028.

More information (in Swedish)

Grading reform

From 1 July 2025, course grades will be replaced by subject grades in upper secondary school, upper secondary school for pupils with intellectual disabilities, municipal adult education at upper secondary level and municipal adult education for adults with intellectual disabilities. The new subject plans will be designed as coherent subjects with levels instead of courses. A subject can have one or more levels. Students will have more time to delve into a subject before the final grade is set. Teachers will have better opportunities to conduct teaching in the long term and from a holistic perspective. Subject grades will better reflect what the person who received a grade actually knows at the end of their studies in the subject. The new rules on subject grades mean that a passing grade at a higher level in a subject replaces the grades that the student has received at lower levels in the same subject. New examination objectives, program objectives and program structures will also come into effect.

More information (in Swedish)

Proposal for a mobile phone ban throughout the school day

Swedish students are more distracted by digital tools than the OECD average, and one in four students cannot read or count properly. In addition, there is clear research support that mobile phones can negatively affect students' concentration and learning opportunities. Therefore, an investigator was assigned in the fall of 2024 to help the Ministry of Education develop proposals for how rules for a mobile phone ban during the entire school day can be designed. 

The investigator proposes, among other things: 

• A national mobile phone ban during school hours in compulsory school types and leisure-time centers
• That it should be mandatory to collect students' mobile phones throughout the school day. 

The investigator has also found that a mobile phone ban can, among other things, have major positive effects on both safety and study peace at school, that it reduces the risk of harassment on social media during the school day, and that it can help increase physical activity during the school day. 

The investigator proposes that the legal amendments should enter into force on July 1, 2026. The proposals will now be further prepared in the Government Offices.

More information (in Swedish)

2024

Improved student health

Today's student health is not enough. Relevant support efforts are often introduced far too late and access to today's student health is often deficient and varies greatly between schools. Therefore, the government is now appointing a new investigation that will be tasked with developing proposals that will strengthen student health and the school's support efforts. 

A special investigator is set to analyze and propose how student health can be strengthened in order to better meet the students' needs. The regulations on support measures in schools must also be reviewed. It must, among other things, become easier to place students in smaller and flexible teaching groups. 

The assignment will be reported by March 7, 2025 at the latest. 

The investigator shall, among other things, 

• analyze and take a position on what the mission and purpose of student health should be,
• suggest how student health's medical, psychological and psychosocial interventions can be strengthened,
• analyze and take a position on the appropriateness of the design of student health's current leadership and management,
• analyze and decide on alternative principals,
• propose a student health guarantee with the goal of achieving appropriate deadlines for receiving support and help from student health,
• analyze and propose how cooperation between student health, the school in general, health care and social services can be improved,
• propose how the work with support and special support can be improved and made more efficient, and
• submit the necessary legislative proposals.

For more information (in Swedish) and even more

A national study on anti-Semitism in the school system

Anti-Semitism is a growing problem in society which, among other things, affects children and young people. The Government commissions the Swedish National Agency for Education to carry out a national study on anti-Semitism in the school system in order to identify which problems and needs exist. 

The Government commissions the Swedish National Agency for Education to carry out a national study on anti-Semitism with the aim of investigating children's, pupils' and staff's experiences of contemporary anti-Semitic expressions, incidents and attitudes in the school system. The assignment also includes that the authority must describe how the school system works to counter anti-Semitism. The Swedish National Agency for Education must also provide examples of initiatives that contribute or have contributed to countering anti-Semitism in the school system. The assignment is to be partially reported no later than December 2, 2024, and a final report will be submitted no later than December 1, 2025.

For more information (in Swedish)

The Swedish National Agency for Education is tasked with surveying student absence

Student absenteeism is a big problem in schools today. At the same time, knowledge of the extent of absence is insufficient. The Government therefore commissions the Swedish National Agency for Education to survey student absenteeism. 

In November, the Government set up an inquiry which will come up with proposals for permanently improved safety and study tranquility at school. The inquiry's mandate includes submitting proposals for a national absence register. The government is already giving the National Board of Education the task of surveying student absences in the compulsory school forms. 

The assignment will be reported to the Ministry of Education by 20 December 2024 at the latest.

For more information (in Swedish)