How is the 1km / 2km distance (HSD) defined?
Home-School Distance (HSD) is officially defined as the shortest distance from the boundary of your home building to the school boundary, placing you in one of three priority bands: within 1km, 1–2km, or beyond 2km. The address used for registration must be the official address on the parents' identity documents, and because HSD can change year to year, it must be re-verified in the registration year — last year's result cannot be reused.
Context
Distance bands are one of the two variables (alongside citizenship/PR status) that decide priority order within a phase, so getting this measurement right matters more than it might seem.
What this means for your family
What this means for your family: HSD only affects your ordering within the same priority phase — it does not mean living close guarantees a place. If that phase's registrations do not exceed vacancies, the distance band makes no difference to the outcome. Before deciding whether to move house to shorten the distance, verify it with the official tool rather than eyeballing a straight line on a map.
Steps you can take now
- Use MOE's designated OneMap School Query tool, in the registration year, to check your home-school distance band for the target school.
- Confirm the registration address matches the official address on the parents' identity documents.
- If the target school has often gone to ballot at your distance band in past years, weigh whether HSD is worth factoring into a house move.
- Do not treat what looks like a short straight-line distance as your HSD result — only the official tool's query counts.
How to know you’re done
You have looked up that year's HSD band using the official tool, and you understand it only matters when registrations exceed vacancies.
Sources and check dates
- SRC-MOE-P1-HOME-ADDRESS-2026 · checked 2026-07-24
- SRC-MOE-P1-DISTANCE-2026 · checked 2026-07-24