Seventeen primary schools are to get extra classrooms to meet a demand for places under a £15 million scheme.
The work will create 380 places in Leicester – needed because of a rising birth rate, arrivals to the city and because more residents are expected to choose local schools over those in the county as results continue to improve.
Education bosses also believe fewer people will send their children to independent schools because of the cost.
They estimate 622 additional primary school places are needed in total by September 2015, on top of the 4,223 that exist.
The total cost of providing all of these is estimated at £35 million.
Decisions have yet to be taken on where the remaining places would be created or where the rest of the money would come from.
Options could include building a school.
Trevor Pringle, director of young people's services at the city council, said: "It's important to note there will no be mobile classrooms, but high-quality, permanent teaching spaces.
"Clearly, that comes at a cost and there's a limit to the funding available at present."
The work will be paid for from the Basic Need Fund, given to the authority by the Government to help it make sure there are enough school places.
It will range from a £107,000 conversion of existing space at Imperial Avenue, in Braunstone, to a £1.7 million re-modelling of Alderman Richard Hallam School, in Beaumont Leys.
Work could start at some schools as early as this summer.
Councillor Vi Dempster, assistant city mayor for schools, said a number of options were being explored to determine where the other places would come from.
"We are working on a longer-term plan to address demand in areas where converting buildings or constructing classrooms is not simple or is not an option," she said.
As well as building a school, options could include the conversion of empty council buildings, some of which are former schools.
Coun Dempster said: "I would expect to present a paper to the council on this within three months."
The council receives Basic Need Fund cash annually. The £15 million has been accumulated over several years.
Alderman Richard Hallam School will have mobile classrooms dating from the 1950s replaced. Seven classrooms will be built, allowing it to increase its annual intake by 30.
Head Jim McGowan said: "We're very excited about this. We're going to get some top-spec classrooms to replace dilapidated mobiles.
"We know parents want to send their children to good schools within walking distance of where they live. Last summer alone we had 147 applications for 90 places.
"I wouldn't want a scenario where one sibling has a place at the school, but the other can't get in."
Sally Morrison, head of Eyres Monsell Primary, said the school would have three classrooms created and two others converted.
Mrs Morrison said: "Our catchment has changed recently and now takes in Gilmorton estate.
"At the other end of the spectrum, age changes in county schools, where many of our year five pupils would go to at 10, have changed.
"It means they don't start until 11, so they're staying on for an extra year, creating a bulge at both ends of the school.
"Expansion will help and we wholeheartedly welcome it."
Jordan Thompson, 20, a student from Leicester, has a baby. She said: "I feel more reassured I'll be able to get her into a school I want.
"I've known many parents searching for something suitable after their first choice is full.
"Hopefully, if the city council puts more money into this, it will allow for greater capacity and more parents will get the school they want."
Education bosses looking at where additional places could be created have approached Martin Fitzwilliam, head of Christ the King School, in Western Park, to discuss the possibility of moving to the empty West Gate school site, in Glenfield Road.
West Gate is spread over two sites, but will move to one as part of the council's Building Schools for the Future programme.
St Mary's Fields infant, in Rowley Fields, is being asked to consider changing its age range from three to seven to three to 11.
Sikh leaders have applied to set up a free school and are waiting to hear if they have been successful.
