School

Steps

1. Identify the right level:
   • nido (nursery, from 3 to 36 months) and scuola dell'infanzia (nursery school, from 3 to 6): optional;
   • scuola primaria (primary school, 5 years, from 6 to 11) and scuola secondaria di primo grado (lower secondary school, 3 years, from 11 to 14): the "first cycle", compulsory;
   • scuola secondaria di secondo grado (general, technical or vocational upper secondary school, 5 years, from 14 to 19): compulsory for the first two years.
2. For the September start: enrol your child online on Unica (unica.istruzione.gov.it) with SPID, CIE, CNS or eIDAS (the digital identity of your European country). For 2026-2027, it was from 13 January to 14 February 2026, extended to 21 February 2026. The ministry sets the dates for each year in an annual note (the one for 2026-2027 is dated 17 December 2025): the note for 2027-2028 had not yet been published on 23 October 2026.
3. On paper, directly at the school: nursery school, schools in the Aosta Valley and in the provinces of Trento and Bolzano, and a few upper secondary tracks.
4. If you arrive during the school year: contact the school in your neighbourhood; it must consider the request, and the territorial school office helps you find a place if it has none.
5. Without a codice fiscale: online enrolment creates a provisional code; you can also go to the school with your identity documents so that it carries out the enrolment.
6. Have past schooling recognised: bring reports and certificates, translated if possible; for a foreign diploma, Italy may ask for a dichiarazione di valore (statement of value, issued by the Italian consulate for the district where the diploma was obtained; it is an information document, not a recognition of the diploma) or go through CIMEA (information centre on equivalences, which gives information on the recognition of foreign qualifications).
7. Register for the canteen and school transport with the Comune (municipal service).

Documents

• Identity document of the child and of the parents, and codice fiscale (otherwise a provisional code, see above).
• Vaccination certificate: for nursery school and the nursery, compulsory vaccinations are a condition of access (decree-law 73/2017); schools send the list of pupils up to 16 to the ASL.
• Reports and school certificates from the country of origin, with translation (and apostille for a diploma, before the dichiarazione di valore).
• Proof of residence (registration with the Comune) for the canteen and municipal rates.

Costs and timelines

• Public school: free; the "contributions" requested by schools are voluntary and separate from school taxes: the school cannot make them a condition of enrolment.
• State school taxes (amounts in force, MIM): due only for the 4th and 5th year of upper secondary school, after 16: enrolment €6.04 (once for the cycle), attendance €15.13 per year, examination €12.09, diploma €15.13. Full exemption if the family's ISEE is less than or equal to €20,000, or on merit (average of at least 8/10 in end-of-year grades).
• Canteen, nursery, transport: the rate varies by municipality, often according to the ISEE (economic situation indicator calculated with the INPS): ask for your Comune's rate table (servizi scolastici section of its website).
• Ages for 2026-2027: nursery school for children who turn 3 by 31 December 2026 (or by 30 April 2027 at the latest, depending on places); primary school compulsory for those who turn 6 by 31 December 2026, possible for those who turn it by 30 April 2027.
• Calendar 2026-2027: set by each region; school starts between 7 and 17 September 2026 depending on the region or province (for example Bolzano 7 September, Veneto and Aosta Valley 10 September, Lombardy 14 September, Lazio, Tuscany and Sicily 15 September, Sardinia 16 September, Apulia 17 September) and lessons end in early or mid-June 2027; the ministry's table contains a few year typos: check the date with the school or the region.
• Accredited French schools (AEFE): Lycée Chateaubriand in Rome and its annex, the École française de Naples Alexandre-Dumas (directly managed); Lycée Stendhal in Milan (directly managed); Lycée français international Jean-Giono in Turin (under agreement); École française de Florence – Lycée Victor Hugo, Institut Saint-Dominique and La petite école française in Rome (partners). Tuition fees are specific to each school.

Common pitfalls

• Missing the January-February window. For a first year (primary, lower secondary, upper secondary), highly sought-after schools fill their places at that time; afterwards, you take what is left.
• Thinking that a foreign school exempts you from everything. For a pupil from a foreign first-cycle school (primary, lower secondary) located in Italy and recognised by the foreign state, the ministry's note provides for an esame di idoneità (admission examination) if they then want to enter a public or paritaria (private under contract) school, unless a more favourable bilateral agreement applies.
• Declaring nothing. Parents are responsible for compulsory schooling, under the supervision of the Comune; since 2023 the penalties have been toughened and can go as far as prison. Home education must be declared every year to the school of the catchment area.
• Forgetting vaccinations for nursery school. Without up-to-date compulsory vaccinations, nursery school enrolment can be cancelled.

What changes by country of origin

• All foreign pupils: same enrolment procedures as Italian pupils (article 45 of DPR 394/1999, recalled by the December 2025 note).
• EU citizens: login to Unica possible with eIDAS, the digital identity of their country.
• French speakers: in the Aosta Valley, the region's special statute (art. 39) requires, in schools that depend on the Region, as many hours of French per week as of Italian, and some subjects can be taught in French there; accredited French schools in Rome, Naples, Milan, Turin and Florence.
• German speakers: in the province of Bolzano, there are German-language (and Ladin) schools, run by the Province and outside the national Unica platform. Enrolment in the first year of primary school or upper secondary school is done online on myCIVIS (SPID, CIE or Carta Servizi), from 10 to 24 January for primary school and from 15 January to 15 February for upper secondary and vocational school; you must reside, even de facto, in the province. A request for a school other than the one in your catchment area is then made on paper, with the catchment-area school.
• French families: school grants possible in AEFE-accredited schools, subject to conditions (French consulate).
• To watch: the December 2025 note already asks to avoid abnormal concentrations of foreign pupils in the same class (article 11 of decree-law 71/2024) and to distribute enrolments with the municipality and the prefecture. In August 2026, the Minister of Education was also reported to have announced a circular capping the share of foreign pupils per class (press report, no official text read): it could influence placement in some schools.