Schooling and childcare in Rome

The national window

State school enrolment is a single online window roughly seven months before term starts, run on the Unica platform at unica.istruzione.gov.it and requiring SPID, CIE or CNS. For 2026/27 it opened at 08:00 on 13 January 2026 and closed at 20:00 on 21 February, having been extended from an original 14 February. It is not a click day: the service stays open around the clock for the whole window, the form can be completed over several sittings, and being early confers no advantage. The window for the following year is set by ministerial circular in the autumn, so check the portal rather than assuming last year's dates.

Rome's own windows for the under-sixes

Roma Capitale runs its own pre-school admissions on calendars separate from the ministry's, both online only. For 2026/27 the scuola dell'infanzia window for ages three to five ran from 13 January to 11 February 2026, ten days shorter than the national window that opened the same morning. Nido applications for the under-threes opened on 24 February and closed on 30 March, with provisional rankings in April and the final list on 26 May, and they go in through comune.roma.it with SPID, CIE or CNS. They are open to residents and to those merely domiciled in Rome, roughly 300 extra places were added across directly-run and convenzionati nurseries that year, and a fuori termine round followed the rankings. Only the 2026/27 dates are confirmed, so read the current bando rather than counting on the same weeks next year.

Arriving outside the window

A child arriving mid-year can still be enrolled in a state school at any point in the year, because Italian law admits foreign minors to compulsory education regardless of the regularity of their stay. The school assigns a class by age, with the option of placing a child one year below, and what you get is whatever the nearby schools have room for. For entry above primary level with schooling done abroad, the school will want the qualification recognised: that means a dichiarazione di valore from the Italian consulate covering the country where the school sits, with the final certificate and transcript legalised, apostilled where the Hague convention applies, and officially translated. It takes weeks to months and has to be started from abroad, which makes it the second thing families miss after the January window.

The bilingual state option

The state bilingual route in Rome is the Convitto Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele II in Piazza Monte Grappa, in the Della Vittoria district, a state boarding and day school running a primary, a middle school, a liceo classico europeo and a liceo scientifico internazionale with a Chinese-language option. Tuition is free, as at any state school. The catch is that semi-convitto, the semi-boarding service, is compulsory and charged on several of those tracks, including the primary, the middle school, the liceo classico europeo and the first two years of the classical and scientific licei. Ask the segreteria which tracks require it and what this year's contribution is before you treat the place as free.

The international sector

Admission timing splits two ways. The American Overseas School of Rome runs rolling admissions subject to availability, which makes a mid-year arrival workable, while St Stephen's runs a fixed cycle and required all forms and checklist documentation by 19 January 2026 for the following academic year. Assume the selective schools have a January deadline and the others do not. The French, German, Swiss and Spanish systems are also represented in the city.

• Indicative 2026/27 fees: St Stephen's €34,599 day and €57,141 boarding; Marymount from €13,900 in early childhood, €17,750 in kindergarten, €21,000 in grades 1 to 5, €23,900 in grades 6 to 8 and €28,000 in grades 9 to 12; the American Overseas School of Rome roughly €13,000 to €28,300.
• Most of those figures exclude enrolment deposits, capital levies, buses and lunch, so ask each school for its own full schedule.