School in Italy: free from six, enrolment in January, and the 40-hour week you have to ask for

Yes, your children can go to state school in Italy, free and without a waiting list: compulsory schooling applies from six to sixteen, to Italian and foreign children alike. What it costs is the timing of enrolment — the window for the 2026-2027 school year ran from 13 January to 21 February, online via the Unica portal — and the trap is in the school hours: the 40-hour week with lunch, the tempo pieno, is an option you tick at enrolment and that the school only grants if it has the staff and a canteen for it. Whoever gets the shorter timetable is at the gate at half past one.

How is the Italian system put together?

Stage	Age	Compulsory?
Servizi educativi (asilo nido)	3 to 36 months	no; municipal or private, paid
Scuola dell'infanzia	3 to 6	no; state, municipal or private
Scuola primaria	6 to 11, five years	yes
Scuola secondaria di primo grado	11 to 14, three years	yes
Scuola secondaria di secondo grado (liceo, istituto tecnico, istituto professionale)	14 to 19, five years	the first two years, until sixteen

Compulsory schooling lasts ten years, from six to sixteen; on top of that comes a right-and-duty to education or vocational training until eighteen or until a three-year vocational qualification. Parents are responsible for compliance, and the municipality of your residenza supervises it.

When does my child start, and when do I enrol?

The primaria is compulsory for every child who turns six before 31 December of the school year; a child who turns six between 1 January and 30 April may start a year early at the parents' request. For the first year of primaria, secondaria di primo grado and secondaria di secondo grado, enrolment runs online via Unica, the ministry's portal. For 2026-2027 it opened on 13 January at eight in the morning and closed on 21 February at eight in the evening; the documents are shared from 1 July after acceptance. If you arrive mid-year, you apply to the school of your choice directly; compulsory schooling does not wait for the window.

The enrolment window opens once a year. Whoever arrives in March and wants to start in September has already missed the regular round and depends on the places the school still has. Choose the school and submit the application before the window closes — even if the move itself is not until the summer.

How many hours a week, and who decides?

This is the point that surprises Dutch parents. At enrolment for the primaria you state your preference for the weekly timetable, and the law knows three: 24 hours, 27 to 30 hours, or 40 hours (tempo pieno). The choice of 30 hours or tempo pieno is only honoured if the school has the staff and facilities for it, and the school must tell you so at enrolment. In the scuola dell'infanzia 40 hours is the norm, reducible to 25 or extendable to 50 on request; in the secondaria di primo grado it is 30 hours, or 36 to 40 with tempo prolungato. The teaching itself is free; lunch in the tempo pieno is a separate service (mensa) for which a contribution is asked — ask the school or the municipality for the rate.

What is there for children under three?

The nursery is not free, but the state contributes through INPS's bonus asilo nido: a reimbursement of the monthly nursery bill, paid for at most eleven months per calendar year and never higher than the bill itself.

Child and ISEE minorenni	Bonus per year
Born from 1 January 2024, ISEE up to and including € 40,000	€ 3,600
Born before 2024, ISEE up to € 25,000.99	€ 3,000
Born before 2024, ISEE € 25,001 to € 40,000	€ 2,500
No or invalid ISEE, or ISEE above € 40,000	€ 1,500

Since 2026 an application stays valid until August of the year in which the child turns three; the bills of a given year must be uploaded by 30 April of the following year, otherwise that part lapses.

Which child benefit goes with it?

The assegno unico e universale is the Italian child benefit, and it is income-related: from at most € 203.80 per minor child per month with an ISEE up to € 17,468.51, tapering to € 58.30 without ISEE or above € 46,582.71 (2026 amounts). The condition is residenza in Italy or working in Italy with compulsory pension insurance. Without ISEE you get the minimum; whoever files the ISEE before 30 June gets the increase retroactively for the current year. Tell the SVB that you are applying in Italy — within the EU family benefits are offset, not stacked.

The school, the ISEE and the INPS application are three counters that wait on each other; the order in which you take them is in the step-by-step plan at /italie, and each child's codice fiscale — the first step for all three — in residenza and codice fiscale.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey, step 5.4: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Italy or go straight to step 5.4 in the open plan.