Educational Accessibility as an Element of Sustainable Urban Transformation: The Case of Poland in the Context of Legislative Reform

Access to schools is crucial in determining an area’s functioning and development, especially regarding housing development. This article presents an analysis of the spatial accessibility of educational services in the city. In Poland, municipalities applied standards for the accessibility of schools in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2023, amendments to the Law on Planning and Spatial Development (The Act of 7 July 2023 amending the Act on Spatial Planning and Development and certain other Acts) reintroduced the obligation to consider the accessibility of education services in the planning documents of municipalities and established the applicable distances. This article presents a method for assessing the level of accessibility of primary schools using spatial–statistical indicators, with the city of Płock as an example. The analysis allowed us to present the spatial differentiation of the level of fulfilment and the level of fulfilment of needs according to the new planning guidelines. We deepened the analysis grounded in the 15-Min City concept to validate the findings, benchmarking the results against international frameworks and recognised good practices. Similar analysis can support local authorities of other municipalities in the spatial planning decision-making process. The authors formulated the following research questions: What criteria can be applied to evaluate the performance of existing educational facilities and determine optimal locations for new schools in planning educational services? Do time-based (15 min) benchmarks reveal different patterns than distance-only thresholds? The example of Płock shows the weaknesses of applying unified urban standards in areas with diverse types of spatial development and the need to modify them. To deepen the verification of the observed discrepancies, the study was extended to include an analysis based on the concept of the 15-Min City. The results revealed even greater disparities in accessibility, highlighting a strong contrast between central and peripheral districts. These findings remain consistent with the conclusions of international studies. Meanwhile, the applicable regulations in Poland provide relatively liberal accessibility thresholds. It may lead to an increase in the distance between residential development and educational facilities and other key elements of urban social infrastructure, thereby distancing national urban planning practices from the European principles of compact, 15 min, and sustainable cities.