Nursery and school: iscrizione, documents

Enrolling a child in kindergarten or school in Italy (iscrizione) scares newly arrived families more than it should: in practice the procedure is clear, and a place in a state school must be provided to a child under 16 regardless of citizenship, religion and the grounds on which the family is in the country. Below we go step by step over which documents to prepare, in which windows to submit them and through which Comune and MIUR portals it is done. This is not legal advice: always verify the specific deadlines and admission rules at istruzione.it and on your Comune's website.

If you are only figuring out how the system itself works (kindergarten, primaria, lyceums and institutes), and how to legalize the child themselves, start with the overview articles about minors and a permesso for a child and family reunification. This article, though, is specifically the practical instruction for enrollment.

On the stages of education themselves, ages and language support, see the overview article on school for foreign children; here it is specifically the mechanics of enrollment.

The main thing I keep telling families: do not wait for a residence permit and registered address to deal with school. The child must be admitted as it is, but you should not drag out enrollment and registering vaccinations - it is precisely on these small things that people later lose weeks.

What stages of education there are and where to enroll the child

Before submitting an application, it is useful to understand which stage your child falls into by age. According to the community and the official brochures for foreigners, the structure is as follows:

• asilo nido - nursery up to roughly 3 years, not a mandatory stage, places are often in short supply, and they are paid;
• scuola dell'infanzia - kindergarten from roughly 3 years, also not mandatory but a very common stage;
• scuola primaria - primary school, according to the community 5 years; the child goes into first grade in the year they turn 6;
• scuola secondaria di primo grado - middle school, according to the community 3 years;
• scuola secondaria di secondo grado - upper school (lyceums, technical and professional institutes), according to the community 5 years, where a track is already chosen.

Compulsory education in Italy covers all children up to a certain age (according to the community roughly up to 16 years) and extends to foreign students regardless of having a permesso. An important caveat: a lyceum or institute (superiore) is not yet higher education; university comes after. Verify the exact breakdown by stage and age at istruzione.it.

Since asilo nido is paid, according to the community it is worth knowing about the bonus asilo nido from INPS - a partial compensation of the nursery fee for children under 3; the application is submitted online through the INPS service or through a patronato, and an ISEE is usually required. The conditions and amounts change every year - verify the current details at inps.it. For adults and teenagers who have outgrown compulsory school, according to the community there are also free Italian courses at CPIA and evening schools (serale), where some subjects can be credited and superiore passed as an external candidate in a couple of years rather than five.

My son started first grade with almost no Italian. I worried for nothing: the first weeks are more like kindergarten at a desk - they draw, listen to music, almost no homework is set. After a couple of months he was already translating individual words for me.

What documents are needed to enroll a child in school?

Usually they ask for: the child's codice fiscale, the residenza or actual address details, a translated vaccination certificate, a certificate from the previous school on subjects and hours plus the report card, the child's document (passport), and for the senior grades - a diploma with an apostille and a translation. Verify the exact list at the secretariat of the specific school.

According to the community, the basic set for enrollment in kindergarten or school is usually built around several documents for the child and the family. Always verify the exact list at the secretariat of the specific school, but most often they ask for:

• the child's codice fiscale - the Italian tax code, it is needed by absolutely everyone, regardless of age; how to arrange it, we discuss in the article about codice fiscale and residenza;
• data on residenza or the actual address - the address determines which school belongs to you; at the same time, the absence of a registered address is not in itself a reason to refuse admission;
• the vaccination certificate, translated into Italian (more on this separately below);
• a certificate from the previous school about completed subjects and the number of hours plus a report card with grades - on their basis the school decides which class to enroll the child in;
• the child's document (international passport), and for the upper grades often - a diploma with an apostille and a translation.

Documents from a foreign school are, according to the community, translated into Italian; for simple certificates a machine translation is enough for many people, while for diplomas and important papers they more often take a sworn (accredited) translation. How the apostille and sworn translation work is discussed in the article about legalization of documents. If the previous school digs in and does not give the certificates, according to the community simple persistence helps - later these papers noticeably simplify enrollment.

A useful clarification according to the community about legalization, so as not to overpay: an apostille on the certificate of completed subjects and on the vaccination certificate is usually NOT required - it is enough to translate them (either yourself or by a translator), and the translation of the subject names someone even writes into the school extract itself by hand in pencil. An apostille, according to the community, is needed above all on full diplomas - for example, for 9 or 11 grades, especially if a lyceum or university lies ahead; for those a sworn translation and certification at the consulate are also more often taken. This certificate of grades is called differently in different places - somewhere it sounds like a personal file or a form like A/40-2, but the essence is the same. Verify the legalization procedure at official sources.

The most useful thing we brought was the certificate with the list of completed subjects and hours plus the report card. Without them the school did not understand which class to take the child into. With them the conversation took fifteen minutes.

We wasted money on an apostille for the vaccinations and the report card - nowhere were they asked for, an ordinary translation was enough. The apostille really was needed only on my older child's diploma. So don't complicate things: enrolling a child in school is almost the easiest thing in the whole move. They'll take you if not into one school, then into a neighboring one.

To check whether a specific document needs an apostille and a sworn translation or an ordinary translation is enough, use the tool:

How to register vaccinations at the ASL

Vaccinations are a separate step that is better not to put off, because some vaccinations in Italy are among the mandatory ones. According to the community, the order is as follows:

1. the certificate with all the vaccinations (date, child's age, name of the vaccine) is translated into Italian - by machine translation or by an accredited translator;
2. you go to a branch of the ASL (the local medical service) or to a vaccination center; there they either accept it right away or give an email address to which you need to send a registration request;
3. in the request by email you attach a copy of the child's international passport, their codice fiscale and a scan of the translated certificate;
4. after registration the vaccinations missing per the Italian schedule are scheduled; if everything is already in place, they usually notify you of the next vaccination in advance.

According to the community, vaccination of children is free. If the child has already had some illness that is vaccinated against in Italy (they give the example of chickenpox), for a medical exemption they ask for a document from a doctor about the illness that was had, sometimes a test for antibodies; all of this is also translated. It happens that the ASL simply forgets about the request, so if they promised to call back and did not within a week, according to the community they advise not to be lazy and to drop by again.

In parallel, it is worth dealing with the child's access to state medicine in general - enrollment in the SSN, choosing a family doctor and the tessera sanitaria are discussed in the article about SSN and tessera sanitaria. Verify the list of mandatory vaccinations and the current calendar at salute.gov.it.

At the vaccination center they asked us only for the translated certificate, the codice fiscale and a copy of the child's passport. The missing vaccinations were scheduled for free, the nurses were very attentive - they even gave my daughter a sticker.

What deadlines to submit the application by and through which portals

According to the community, enrollment has main windows and there is a backup route for those who arrived later.

• The main window for first grade falls roughly in January (the guide quoted is around 9-30 January). At the same time, according to the community, enrollment in full-day classes opens.
• If you missed the general period, it is usually enough to write to the school's email or call the secretariat and ask whether there are places. According to the community, this is exactly how children of recently moved families are most often enrolled - by an online request to the official email listed on the school's website.

The applications for enrollment themselves are, in a large part of schools, submitted online through the state portal (Iscrizioni online / MIUR) or through the Comune's website, which leads to the right form. According to the community, for many newcomers the easiest turned out to be a direct request to the school by email, especially when there is not yet SPID or CIE to log into the portal.

An important practical detail according to the community: showing up at the secretariat "off the street" most often won't work - almost everywhere an appuntamento is needed. So first you call or write to the secretariat's email, arrange a meeting, and bring the original documents to it (copies the secretariat usually makes itself). For one family the whole enrollment went through email correspondence. In large comuni there are several secretariats, and each school handles reception separately. The same secretariat at a school, according to the community, often also handles enrollment in kindergarten (scuola dell'infanzia) from age 3.

Finding state schools by region and city, looking at their websites and email is, according to the community, convenient through publicly available school directories and through the Comune's website; before choosing they advise reading reviews, assessing the location and, if possible, taking a walk nearby. Note that primary and upper schools are often in different buildings, and if you have children of different ages, it is worth looking in advance at the distance between them.

We moved in August, we clearly did not make the January window. We simply wrote to the email of the nearest school, attached the codice fiscale and the certificate from the previous one - and a place for the first-grader was given without problems. No magic, an ordinary letter.

An important detail about the start of the school year: there is no single date like the first of September in Italy according to the community, the start depends on the region and the weather (often around the middle of September), and the exact date for a specific school is looked up on its website. There is no opening ceremony either - the children simply come on the first day in comfortable clothes. The processing timeline helps to estimate how the deadlines for enrollment, entry and arranging the status of the whole family fit together.

How children are enrolled into a class and into which school by address

According to the community, in primary school the child is enrolled by age (into first grade - in the year they turn 6), and for those who arrive from another system, the class is selected based on the certificate of completed subjects and hours. There is a nuance here: sometimes the child is placed in a class one or two, or even three, years lower. If this is critical for you, according to the community it is better to negotiate enrollment by age right away, because moving the child up later can be harder - they may be asked to pass some subjects as an external candidate.

In middle school (scuola media) with weak Italian the child may, according to the community, also be placed a class lower - for example, in the third or even the second. A few important points from practice:

• Moving up is a separate quest. In one case the child was placed two classes lower because of age, and to return them to their level the parents had to go to the principal for several months, and then write an application for the child to pass the exams for the next class as an external candidate.
• A media diploma is needed for a lyceum. Without a certificate of completing scuola media you cannot enroll in a lyceum, so "skipping" the stage won't work - first you need the document for media. According to the community, the secretariat itself sometimes does not know how to issue a diploma to a student who passed the exams as an external candidate, so this path is worth discussing with the principal in advance.
• Primary school is strictly mandatory. According to the community, for a child not attending scuola elementare parents face up to criminal liability - unlike the older stages, where the consequences are milder. This is a guide from accounts, verify the exact norms at official sources.

Which school exactly belongs to your address depends, according to the community, on residenza and the district; this is one of the reasons why the registered address matters not for the fact of admission itself but for the distribution. In large cities there are also paid international schools with high rankings - if this is fundamental for you, the options are worth studying in advance, by writing to or calling the secretariat.

For older teenagers (according to the community roughly from 16 years, when compulsory education has already ended) the choice is harder: somewhere they may refuse enrollment in a school, and people get out of the situation by asking for a class one or two lower in order to get an Italian diploma. This is already closer to the choice between an institute and a university - the topic overlaps with the section on status and further steps.

We were offered to put our ten-year-old a class lower - formally logical, but in practice the child would have been bored. We calmly asked for a class by age and explained why. They met us halfway. Had we agreed to the lower one, reversing it later would have been tough.

The secretariat enrolled our fourteen-year-old in a class with eleven-year-olds. For half a year I went there and wrote until they transferred him, and then we also figured out how to issue a media diploma after the exams as an external candidate - they had never had such students before. Advice: fight for a class by age right away, at the entrance, it's much easier than to redo it later.

Something non-obvious about middle school: there they choose a second foreign language, usually French or Spanish, and study it for three years. This surprised us - in upper school it is then no longer mandatory (except language lyceums). So if the child likes it, it's a bonus of another language during media.

What else to consider: textbooks, meals, after-school care and the personal account

A few practical points that, according to the community, come up right after enrollment:

• Textbooks. In the primary grades they are, according to the community, free, while in the upper grades they are bought, and not simply in a store but by ordering in advance at a bookshop or stationery shop per the school's list (sometimes through a special module). A set for the upper grades can be expensive, so many take used ones or pass books between families. Clarify the ordering procedure at the secretariat. According to the community, even the free textbooks for primary school are ordered at a Cartoleria (stationery shop) or Libreria: you give the school, the class with its letter and the child's full name, sign up in the order log, and pick up the set at the start of September. The textbook list goes by class, and it usually states the number and letter of the class and the number of teaching hours - it is what you order by. If you arrived mid-year, the school may, according to the community, spend more than a month looking for the missing textbooks, so it's better to remind them. Purchased textbooks for the upper grades are partly compensated to low-income families on an ISEE - clarify the return procedure at the secretariat.
• School supplies. According to the community, they usually require noticeably fewer than newcomers are used to; the list is also given by the school.
• Meals (mensa). Meals are, according to the community, provided by a separate company, the contract with it is arranged in advance and a prepayment is often made; a link to the organization is usually on the Comune's website. When arranging it they ask about diet (medical, religious or simply refusal of products). A discount on meals is, according to the community, given if you have an ISEE.
• After-school care. According to the community, schools have an extended day (tempo prolungato / tempo pieno), and in primary school they distinguish classes by a different number of hours per week. If you need a full day, it is worth enrolling in advance, as soon as the intake opens; you tick the box about after-school care right in the application or fill in a separate form.
• The personal account and payment. Grades, homework and often invoices are, according to the community, kept in an online account; the access comes to the email before the start of the year. Often it is a specific app - according to the community it is often called Nuvola ("cloud"), into which the electronic diary and report card are uploaded. For paying for services they use the pagoinrete portal, and logging in requires SPID or CIE - so right after the move some payments are sometimes made by QR code through the tobacco shop.
• The paper diary (libretto). In primary school they often, according to the community, also issue a paper diary, and it is not like the familiar one: its main part is tear-off sheets for parents, where days of absence and lateness with the reason are noted (motivi di salute - for health, motivi di famiglia - for family circumstances). Free-form notes from parents are not needed here.
• Voluntary contribution (contributo volontario). Besides the paid services the school may, according to the community, ask for a voluntary contribution - the amounts are small, in one case quoted at around 18-20 EUR per year. Formally it is voluntary; what it includes, clarify at the school.
• Summer camps. At state schools there are, according to the community, inexpensive summer camps (centri estivi) - without English and tennis, but with games and walks; in one case quoted at around 50 EUR a week for a full day with meals and about 20 EUR for a half day, plus a one-time contribution. These are guides from accounts - verify the tariffs on the spot.

According to the community, absences at school are strictly tracked: it is important to know how much the child can be absent for the year to count, and the reason for the absence (for health or for family circumstances) is noted in the diary or in the online account; a certificate from a doctor is not required everywhere. Verify access to pagoinrete and the tariffs for services on your Comune's website and at istruzione.it.

Do not expect a paper diary like back home - almost everything is in the personal account: grades, homework, sometimes invoices. Until we had SPID, we paid for meals by QR code at the tobacconist. It sounds wild, but it works.

It struck me that the textbooks for my younger daughter, though free, are ordered not at the school but at a stationery shop: I gave the school, the class and the full name, signed in the log - you'll pick them up in September. And in primary school they don't set homework, and the children keep the textbooks in personal lockers right in the classroom, not lugging backpacks of books every day. Unusual, but convenient.

Related articles

• Permesso for a child - addition to a parent's permit or an own card: how to legalize the child before school enrollment.
• Interactive "Family in Italy" checklist - a step-by-step reunification tracker: nulla osta, visa, permesso for your family.
• Minors: a permesso for a child, al seguito and school - how to legalize the child themselves and why school matters for the art. 31 route.
• Family reunification in Italy - an overview of family grounds and routes.
• SSN and tessera sanitaria - enrolling the child in medicine, choosing a family doctor, linking the codice fiscale to the address.
• Status, travel and further steps - what matters for the family after arranging the documents.
• Tools: processing timeline - estimate the deadlines for enrollment and the family's move.
• Asilo nido: graduatoria and bonus nido - how the ranking for a place works and the fee compensation for nursery.

Official sources

• istruzione.it - Ministry of Education: enrollment in school (iscrizioni online), the school calendar, the pagoinrete portal for payment.
• salute.gov.it - healthcare: mandatory vaccinations and the vaccination calendar, registration of vaccinations at the ASL.
• agenziaentrate.gov.it - codice fiscale for a child.
• spid.gov.it - SPID for logging into school and state portals.
• interno.gov.it - the rights of foreign minors and family grounds.

Frequently asked questions

What documents are needed to enroll a child in school?

Usually they ask for: the child's codice fiscale, the residenza or actual address details, a translated vaccination certificate, a certificate from the previous school on subjects and hours plus the report card, the child's document (passport), and for the senior grades - a diploma with an apostille and a translation. Verify the exact list at the secretariat of the specific school - the absence of a registered address is not by itself a ground for refusal.

Are a residence permit and registered address needed to enroll a child in school?

According to the community, enrollment in a state school does not depend on having a permesso or residenza in advance: a place must be given to any child under 16 regardless of status. The registered address rather affects which school belongs to your address and access to the personal payment account. Verify the exact admission rules at the chosen school and at istruzione.it - this is not legal advice.

What are the deadlines for enrolling in first grade?

According to the community, the main window for online enrollment in first grade falls roughly in January, while classes for foreigners who arrived later are often formed in summer. If you missed the general period, it is usually enough to write to or call the school secretariat and ask about places. Verify the specific dates for each school year at istruzione.it - this is not legal advice.

What about vaccinations - are they mandatory for enrollment?

According to the community, vaccination data is registered at the ASL or a vaccination center: you bring there the certificate translated into Italian, the codice fiscale and a copy of the child's passport, after which the vaccinations missing per the Italian schedule are scheduled. Vaccination of children is free. Verify the list of mandatory vaccinations and the procedure at salute.gov.it - this is not legal advice.

How do you pay for meals, after-school care and the bus?

According to the community, paid services (mensa, after-school care, transport) are arranged through the Comune or a contractor, and payment is usually made in a personal account on pagoinrete or by QR code. Logging into the account requires SPID or CIE, so right after the move some payments are sometimes made at the tobacco shop by receipt. Verify the access and tariffs on your Comune's website and at istruzione.it.

Which grade will the child be placed in - by age or lower?

According to the community, the decision is made based on a certificate of completed subjects and hours from the previous school, and sometimes the child is placed in a class one or two years lower. If a class strictly by age matters to you, it is worth negotiating it right away, because moving up later can be harder. This is not legal advice, verify the enrollment procedure at the school itself.

Where do you get textbooks and is it true that in primary school they are free?

According to the community, in primary school (primaria) textbooks are free, while from middle school (media) they are bought. They are ordered, according to the community, not at an ordinary store but at a Cartoleria (stationery shop) or Libreria: you give the school, the class with its letter and the child's full name, and pick up the set at the start of September. Purchased textbooks for the upper grades are partly compensated to low-income families on an ISEE. Clarify the ordering and return procedure at the secretariat - this is not legal advice.

Is an apostille needed on the report card and vaccinations to enroll in school?

According to the community, an apostille is usually not required on the certificate of grades and the vaccination certificate - a translation is enough. An apostille is more often needed on full diplomas (for example, for 9 or 11 grades), especially if a lyceum or university lies ahead, and for those a sworn translation and certification are also taken. Verify the exact legalization procedure in your own case at official sources - this is not legal advice.

Related materials - Family reunification

• Art. 31 TU: permit via the juvenile court
• Idoneita alloggiativa: who needs it, rules
• Asilo nido: graduatoria and bonus nido
• How to bring a dog or cat to Italy

Next stepItalian residence route matcherFive questions show the best-fit permit: lavoro autonomo, digital nomad, residenza elettiva or family.

Documents for this topic

• "Guide to the Italian High School System for Foreign Teenagers and Parents (Bilingual, It/Ru)"
• List of school supplies for 1st grade of Italian primary school (A.S. 2022/2023)
• Italian Education System by Age Levels