Schooling and childcare in Lyon

The window closes in April

Schooling is compulsory in France from three to sixteen, so a three-year-old moving to Lyon goes into maternelle. Lyon runs a fixed campaign each spring: for the 2026-2027 year it ran from 2 February to 24 April 2026, closing four months before term started. Requests for a dérogation to a school outside your sector closed on the same date, and anything later is handled only once the in-sector allocations are done. The dates for 2027-2028 had not been published as of September 2026, so treat February to April as the pattern and check lyon.fr rather than a number from a guide.

• The campaign formally concerns children entering petite section and children newly arrived in Lyon.
• Registrations stay open right through the school year for newcomers, so an October arrival is not shut out.
• What a late arrival loses is any realistic chance of a dérogation. You take what the sector offers.

How the registration works

Lyon assigns a child to a school by the parents' home address under the carte scolaire. You register either online, through a personal account on the city's e-services platform, or in person at the mairie d'arrondissement, whose arrangements for the visit are worth checking first. The mairie then issues the certificat de pré-inscription and the enrolment is completed with the school's director. Bring the documents in one go, because a missing proof of address stops the process where it stands.

• Proof of parental authority: the livret de famille, a birth certificate or a guardianship order.
• A proof of address less than three months old, such as the lease or a utility bill.
• If you are staying with someone: their ID, their proof of address and a sworn statement.
• Health and vaccination records go to the school, not to the mairie.

Lunch is a separate registration

Canteen and after-school périscolaire places are registered annually and separately from the school place, on a later calendar that opens in the spring — for 2026-2027 it ran from 21 April to 21 June 2026, with the city emailing families on the opening day. Nothing renews automatically, so last year's place is not this year's, and missing the window costs the lunch rather than the school place. You register online, at any mairie d'arrondissement or through the school's référent coéducation, and the price follows your quotient familial municipal: without one you pay the maximum, €7.30 for the midday session in 2026-2027.

Arriving mid-schooling from abroad

A child arriving into primary school under the age of six goes straight into an ordinary class. From six they are assessed academically and placed either in a standard class or with UPE2A support, which combines mainstream lessons with intensive French. For collège and lycée the académie's CASNAV tests competencies, and the académie assigns a place on those results and available capacity, with the DASEN issuing the placement decision. A pupil returning from non-French schooling sits an exam set by the head or the DSDEN. Enrolment needs school records, compulsory vaccination certificates, a parent information form and a proof of address.

The international routes

The International School of Lyon sits at 80 Chemin du Grand Roule in Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon, south-west of the city. It is an IB World School authorised for the Primary Years Programme and the Diploma Programme, covers Kindergarten to Grade 12 for ages 3 to 18, and draws on a community of more than 45 nationalities. Teaching is in English and French runs right through: a quarter of the Kindergarten week is in French, and from Grade 1 every pupil takes it as a first language, a second language or ab initio. The free state alternative is the Cité Scolaire Internationale, a public école, collège and lycée at 2 place de Montréal in Gerland, in the 7th, which runs nine sections internationales alongside the normal French curriculum, from English, German and Spanish to Arabic, Chinese and Japanese, though not every section runs at every level. Admission requirements and the application timetable should be asked of that school directly.

• ISL charges a non-refundable €500 application fee and a one-off enrolment fee of €3,750 for primary or €5,000 for secondary in 2026-2027.
• Annual tuition varies by grade, with separate company-sponsored and private-payer rates; the schedule is in ISL's "Admission fees and procedures 2026-2027" document on islyon.org. The private-payer discount requires signed employer documentation.
• Admission is effectively rolling, with no published cut-off date, and applications are made online through the school's website.
• ISL decides admission on school records, an evaluation and, where appropriate, an interview or test, and a sufficient command of English is required to enter the secondary school.
• ISL is a not-for-profit association under French law.