Check school protection zones before paying a shop deposit
This tool uses Korean 2026 rules under Articles 8 and 9 of the Educational Environment Protection Act.
It screens internet computer gaming facility businesses (PC gaming cafés), karaoke practice businesses and lodging or tourist accommodation businesses near Korean schools.
A promising rent or goodwill price does not establish that your intended business can operate at that address.
Paying a deposit, goodwill or fit-out costs before checking the prohibition and exclusion route can leave money committed to an unsuitable site.
Enter up to five schools or planned sites to compare overlapping zones, school-type exceptions and exclusion review routes.
The most restrictive confirmed result is shown with unresolved items.
The tool does not locate an address, decide a legal boundary or predict committee approval; it prepares a review sheet for the competent education office.
Trading names and an earlier operator’s presence are insufficient evidence.
The 50 m and 200 m zones use different reference points
Existing schools
The absolute protection zone extends through 50 m in a straight line from school entrances.
The relative protection zone extends through 200 m from the school boundary, excluding the absolute zone.
A shop 40 m from a fence is not necessarily in an existing school’s absolute zone.
A distant entrance does not remove the relative zone if the boundary is nearby.
Planned school sites
A planned site is not ignored because it has no entrance.
Its absolute zone uses the school-site boundary through 50 m, with the remaining area through 200 m screened as relative.
Verify the planned-site designation and the current protection-zone notice.
Do not invent a future gate location.
Use shortest straight-line distances, not walking or driving distances.
Check all relevant entrances rather than choosing the most convenient gate.
Verify the measurement scope for the business and required ancillary facilities with the education office; a building centre point or the shop’s door alone may not represent the relevant facility.
Inclusive boundaries and threshold differences
Distance thresholds where an active official designation agrees with the verified measurements| Reference | Distance | Distance screen |
|---|
| Existing school entrance | 50m | Included in absolute zone |
| Planned-site boundary | 50m | Included in absolute zone |
| Boundary, outside absolute zone | 200m | Included in relative zone |
| Boundary, outside absolute zone | 200.01m | Outside this school’s zone |
Formulas: absolute reference distance − 50 / boundary distance − 200
For entrance 140m and boundary 120m, the differences are +90m and −80m.
A positive first value is beyond the absolute threshold; a negative second value is within the relative threshold.
These are explanatory differences, not allowances for construction or relocation.
Exactly 50m and 200m are included; displayed rounding cannot replace a legal survey.
School-type exceptions for PC cafés and karaoke
PC café screening is limited to the statutory internet computer gaming facility business under Article 9 item 19; karaoke screening covers the karaoke practice business under item 24.
A café with computers, or a singing venue selling alcohol, cannot be assigned one of these categories by its trading name alone.
Mixed or other statutory businesses require separate checks; select Other / unconfirmed when the classification is unresolved.
Statutory kindergartens and higher education schools
Items 19 and 24 exclude protection zones of kindergartens under the Early Childhood Education Act and schools under the Higher Education Act.
This is an exception to those provisions, not permission for every business near a kindergarten.
Do not equate a childcare centre with a statutory kindergarten or use the word university in an institution’s name as proof.
Verify the applicable legal school category for primary, secondary, special and alternative schools; an unknown school type does not receive an exception.
For a school without an applicable exception, the absolute zone produces a prohibition result.
The relative zone may enter the exclusion route through local committee review and recognition by the superintendent of education or delegated authority.
Review needed does not mean approval is likely or guaranteed and does not justify spending money first.
Lodging near a university is not automatically exempt
Lodging and tourist accommodation under Article 9 item 27 do not have the blanket higher-education exception used by PC cafés.
Ordinary lodging with no applicable statutory exception is prohibited in an absolute zone and requires exclusion review in a relative zone.
Calling a motel a hotel or providing many rooms does not establish an exception.
Exceptions by legal facility category
Item 27 excludes accommodation attached to qualifying international convention facilities.
Decree Article 22(4) items 2 and 3 identify Korean traditional hotel and family hotel businesses under tourism legislation.
A hanok property, family-oriented pension or advertising slogan does not prove that statutory classification.
Tourist hotel in a university zone
Decree Article 22(4) item 1 concerns a tourist hotel in a Higher Education Act school’s zone.
It must be outside the absolute zone, have at least 100 rooms, contain none of the facilities in Act Article 9 items 13, 22, 23, 26 and 32, and have an open structure allowing common spaces such as entrances, parking and lobby to be seen from outside.
All conditions are required; this tourist-hotel exception does not apply in a university absolute zone.
The calculator does not independently assess these facility qualifications.
Select Authority confirmed only after the competent office has verified applicability to this school and facility; record the evidence date, document and scope.
A claimed exception or an ongoing check stays pending.
Do not transfer one school’s confirmation to another school.
Prepare inputs in this order
- Classify the business: identify the legal registration or reporting category and actual services. Mixed and unsupported businesses need separate review.
- Survey every nearby school: include planned sites and overlapping designations. If there are more than five relevant schools, do not rely on this tool for a complete result.
- Reconcile designation and measurements: view the official educational-environment GIS, then check education-office notices, cadastral plans and any necessary survey evidence. GIS viewing alone has no legal effect.
- Verify present effect and previous decisions: examine closure, relocation, planned-site cancellation and each prior decision’s school, business, unit, area, layout and conditions.
- Ask about pending items: take conflicts and unresolved facts to the education office before following the exclusion route.
Blank distance means unconfirmed and differs from a verified 0 m.
Planned sites use the boundary without an entrance input.
An existing school’s shortest boundary distance cannot exceed its shortest entrance distance for the same measurement scope; such inputs stay pending.
Recheck the measured facility and reference points before changing a number to obtain a favourable result.
Worked example with overlapping schools
Primary A relative zone + Kindergarten B absolute zone
Assume the statutory PC café classification and all nearby schools have been verified.
Primary A has boundary 120m and entrance 140m, an official relative designation and no prior exclusion decision.
It needs exclusion review, with differences +90m and −80m.
Kindergarten B has boundary 30m and entrance 50m, placing it in an absolute zone, but item 19 supplies the kindergarten exception.
The overall result remains exclusion review for A.
Adding an absolute zone for Primary C
If Primary C is added with boundary 30m, entrance 50m and an official absolute designation, its prohibition takes priority.
B’s exception and any decision for A do not remove C’s prohibition.
One favourable school result cannot determine the whole site.
All figures are fictional teaching examples, not actual addresses or approval cases.
School closure, relocation and designation effect
An empty school building or transferred students alone do not establish that the zone has lapsed.
Act Article 8(4) addresses closure or relocation, loss of effect of the urban/county management-plan decision for a planned site, and cancellation of specified kindergarten, special-school or alternative-school establishment plans or approvals.
Closure and relocation also have a survival exception under the Decree.
A replacement school plan can preserve the zone
Decree Article 21(4) addresses a plan to establish or relocate another school on the existing site, recognized by the superintendent before closure or relocation is completed and publicly announced through the information system or education-office website or another stated means.
Choose Confirmed loss of effect only after the office has checked this survival exception too.
Keep an unresolved school as pending instead of deleting it from the review.
Prior exclusion decisions and pending results
An earlier operator saying that review was completed is different from a currently applicable decision.
Verify the same school, statutory business, unit, area, layout, conditions and present effect, including any change or succession.
A prior relative-zone decision cannot override an absolute-zone prohibition.
- A confirmed prohibited school takes priority, while other pending schools remain visible.
- Without a prohibition, missing core evidence or an incomplete school survey makes the overall result pending.
- Once all required facts are verified, a relative zone without a current exclusion produces Review needed.
- A confirmed prior decision, statutory exception or outside-zone result covers only its stated scope and is not a business permit.
If the official relative designation conflicts with an absolute-zone distance screen, the tool withholds a favourable conclusion.
Ask the office to reconcile entrances, cadastral boundaries, common spaces and required ancillary facilities.
Changing decimal places without resolving the underlying conflict is not a valid check.
Use the review when planning contracts and spending
Prospective tenants
Present the sheet and plans to the education office to establish whether exclusion review is needed.
After confirming the result and scope, discuss conditions precedent, termination and return of the deposit or goodwill if recognition fails, and when fit-out expenditure begins.
The tool does not determine contractual enforceability or guarantee recovery of goodwill.
Owners and business buyers
Collect each school’s designation and existing decisions before advertising possible uses.
Present proposed succession, expansion, floor or layout changes along with the prior decision.
Building use, fire safety, hygiene and business-specific gaming or music registrations remain separate checks.
Save the review as TXT or print it with inputs, evidence notes, zones, decisions and threshold differences.
Editing inputs hides the old result until the screen is run again.
Record notice references and necessary business evidence rather than personal identifiers, and retain the sheet with the actual contract-review documents.
Frequently asked questions
Can I operate if I am more than 200 m from a school?
That may end the zone screen for that particular school.
Other schools, planned sites, building use, fire and hygiene rules and business permits or registrations still require checks.
Are exactly 50 m and 200 m included?
Yes.
The statutory boundaries are inclusive.
For an existing school the 50 m reference is its entrances; for a planned site it is the boundary.
Is a PC café always prohibited in a kindergarten absolute zone?
Item 19 provides a kindergarten exception for a verified statutory PC gaming facility business.
Any overlapping primary or secondary school prohibition or review route remains.
Are all hotels near universities exempt?
No.
Ordinary lodging has no blanket university exception.
The conditional tourist-hotel route requires a location outside the absolute zone, at least 100 rooms, no specified harmful facilities, an open common-space structure and verified applicability.
Is a family-oriented pension a family hotel?
Only the actual statutory family hotel classification qualifies for that route.
Customers or advertising do not establish a legal exception.
Should I delete a closed school?
A replacement-school plan may preserve the designation.
Confirm loss of effect with the office, select that status and keep the evidence reference.
Can I use the previous operator’s exclusion decision?
Confirm the same school, business, facility scope, conditions and current effect.
The tool does not automatically recognize succession or changes.
What if the map and measured distances disagree?
The result stays pending.
GIS is a reference view; reconcile the notice, cadastral plan, survey and facility scope with the office before committing to a contract.
Official sources and update dates
Korean 2026 rules, checked 2026-11-04 through the National Law Information OPEN API.
The current Act is ID012494/MST280023, promulgated 2025-12-02 and effective 2026-06-03.
Verified provisions include Act Articles 8 and 9 and Decree Articles 21, 21-2 and 22.
The relevant Articles 21 and 22 of Decree ID012799/MST286641 took effect 2026-06-02; selected Article 16 provisions and Article 20 took effect 2026-06-03 instead.
Recheck amendments to Article 9 and school-type or Decree exceptions, school notices, entrances, facility scope and conditions attached to existing decisions.
This tool does not perform an educational-environment impact assessment, building-use conversion, a complete audit of all prohibited businesses or an estimate of review success, processing time or fees.
Prepare the next education-office consultation
Enter the verified business category and every nearby school or planned site above.
Use pending items as questions for the office and relative-zone results as a review-preparation checklist.
Confirm the official result, applicable scope and other permits before deciding the order of contract payments and fit-out work.