5.2 School authorities

The Education Reform Act 2017 (Bildungsreformgesetz, Federal Law Gazette I No 138/2017) has brought substantial changes to the school system. By 31 December 2018 the Provincial School Boards (in Vienna: Vienna School Board), which had been in charge of school administration in the federal provinces, were dissolved. As at 1 January 2019 an Board of Education (Bildungsdirektion) was established for each federal province as joint authority of the federal state and the respective federal province. For Vienna, this is the Vienna Board of Education.

The Boards of Education are responsible for executing school legislation in accordance with sec14 of the AustrianFederal Constitutional Law (B-VG). This includes tasks like quality assurance, school supervision and educationalevaluation, unless these tasks are formally assigned to other authorities for individual sections of the education system (e.g.central education and training facilities - Zentrallehranstalten). Boards of Education are also generally in charge of executing teacher employment laws and staff representation rights for teachers employed at provincial or federal level.

The Education Director is the head of the Board of Education. She or he is appointed by the competent federal minister upon proposal and in consultation with the Governor of the province in question.

It can be stipulated by provincial law that the Governor acts as President of the Board of Education.