Municipalities are the “founders" of state pre-primary, primary and lower secondary educational institutions, except for those exclusively providing education for children with special needs, which have remained part of a separate network under the direct supervision of de-concentrated state administration units (regional state authorities). The authorities of the self-governing regions are the founders of state upper secondary institutions, also with the exception of those exclusively offering special needs education (also managed by regional state authorities). The number of municipalities running schools is very high and almost one third of them are founders of lower secondary institutions (see also Chapter 1).