Schooling and childcare in Bologna

The national window

Enrolment for 2026/27 opened on 13 January 2026 and closed on Saturday 21 February, the original 14 February deadline having been extended. It covers scuola dell'infanzia, primaria and secondaria of both first and second grade. From primary upwards the application is filed only online through the Ministry's Unica platform at unica.istruzione.gov.it, using a SPID or CIE digital identity, and there is no paper route. The 2027/28 dates had not been published as of mid-September 2026; on recent practice the window opens in January, closes in the second half of February, and is announced the preceding autumn.

Infanzia and nido go through the Comune

Scuola dell'infanzia for ages three to six in Bologna, state-run or municipal, is applied for online through the Comune with SPID or CIE rather than through Unica, in the same 13 January to 21 February window; late applications are taken but go into the June ranking behind the on-time ones. The municipal nidi, for three to thirty-six months, run a calendar of their own: for 2026/27 applications opened at 08:00 on 13 April 2026 and closed at 23:59 on 4 May, with a late window from 08:00 on 1 June to 23:59 on 31 December 2026. There were 1,584 places for new enrolments, 132 more than the year before, allocated on a points ranking that weighs family load, the parents' work or study, and income.

• Your ISEE feeds that ranking and breaks ties, so start it as soon as you have a codice fiscale.
• A municipal nido place requires both you and the child to be resident in the Comune of Bologna. For infanzia, non-resident children are placed only behind resident ones.
• Both nido and infanzia require the vaccination obligation to have been met.
• For anyone arriving in the autumn, the late nido window runs to 31 December, and an infanzia application can be filed at any point — it simply joins the queue.

The deadline nobody mentions

Both windows sit four to eight months before the September start. A family arriving in autumn for that school year would have needed to apply the previous February for a school place and by early May for a municipal nido. Arriving in September means the main round has already gone, and what is left is a late application that ranks behind everyone who filed on time.

The International School of Bologna

ISB is an IB continuum school teaching in English from three to eighteen, running the Primary Years, Middle Years and Diploma programmes, at Via della Libertà 2 in the historic centre. Applications go through the OpenApply platform, and admissions answer at admission@isbologna.com or on +39 051 644 9954, with reception open 08:30 to 17:00. Published 2026/27 tuition runs from €9,900 to €21,870 a year, set by grade band from Reception through to Grade 12, with the exact schedule given only on request to the admissions office. The school states plainly that it does not accept requests to anticipare a student, that is, to place a child a year ahead as the Italian system sometimes allows.

• On top of tuition there is a one-off admission fee and an annual registration fee, both non-refundable, and lunch is billed separately by the number of days a week. ISB does not publish the amounts, so ask for the schedule in writing before you commit.
• Sibling discounts are 10, 20 and 30 per cent for the second, third and fourth child.
• Admission is rolling rather than to a single deadline, but popular entry points fill first, so ask the admissions office about availability in your child's grade before you plan a move around it.
• The school is moving: a purpose-built campus at Via John F. Kennedy 10 in Zola Predosa, about ten kilometres out, opens in September 2027, served by a school bus from central Bologna at extra cost.

The alternatives

The bilingual option in the city is Kinder International School Bologna, running from eighteen months to sixteen with more than half the teaching hours in English; it calls itself Bologna's first international school, with roots back to 1967, is IB-authorised for the Primary Years Programme and is only a candidate school for the Middle Years, and does not publish its fees. Out of town, the International School of Modena runs to the IB Diploma and quotes €11,750 for full-day Kindergarten rising to €21,900 in the top grades for 2026/27, plus a €2,100 one-off admission fee and a €1,000 annual registration fee, about forty kilometres away. Ferrara has the Smiling International School, an IB World School taking ages two to eighteen alongside the Italian curriculum, which publishes no fees either. Ask each one for its fee schedule in writing rather than relying on a directory.