The objective of the study is to provide a comparative analysis of how school autonomy is implemented in 30 countries of the Eurydice Network at this time and to gain a fuller understanding of the processes that have led to the devolution of decision-making powers to schools and how schools are held accountable for their responsibilities to higher education authorities. The reference year for this study is 2006/07 and information relates to education levels at ISCED 1 and 2, which correspond to the period of full-time compulsory education almost everywhere. Reforms planned for forthcoming years have also been included where possible. Only the public education sector is described, with the exception of Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands, where the grant-aided private sector is also covered because it accounts for the majority of school enrolments. Moreover, in the Netherlands, equal funding and treatment of private and public education is enshrined in the constitution. This paper contains three chapters. The different theories that have successively driven this move towards school autonomy in Europe are described in chapter I. Chapter II of this study looks with some detail at the content of school autonomy within three broad fields (the first two being the use of public and private funds respectively and the third being human resources). Finally, the ways in which schools are held accountable for their decisions is outlined in chapter III. Key for the next tables is appended. Individual chapters contain footnotes. (Contains 14 figures.)