School and nursery in France: how to enrol your child

We, “Vibe South of France”, have put together the enrolment procedure for families who have just arrived: what is compulsory, where to go first, what to do if your child doesn’t speak French, and when the holidays are. Everything comes from official pages (service-public, the town halls of Nice, Montpellier and Toulouse, the Toulouse académie), and the checking date is 18 October 2026. What members of our chat have told us is collected in a separate section below, apart from the official procedure. If you want to hear from someone who has done it in your town, ask in the “Vibe South of France” community chat on Telegram - relocation and life in the South of France.

What is compulsory, and from what age

The rule is the same for French and foreign children: service-public says it applies “quelle que soit votre nationalité”, and the Nice town hall says “pour tous les enfants, français ou étrangers”. Enrolling in a state nursery school costs nothing. If you don’t enrol the child, the fine is up to €1,500, and if you ignore a DASEN order (the departmental director of national education), up to 6 months in prison and €7,500.

Two caveats about two-year-olds. In Montpellier places from age 2 (toute petite section) are limited in number and only in priority-education areas; in Nice they are in REP and REP+ schools. So don’t count on it, though it costs nothing to ask the town hall.

If you move to another commune, you have to register the child at the new address, at the town hall, within 8 days.

Nursery and primary: the town hall first, then the school head

The order is the same across the country: town hall first, school second. Without enrolment at the town hall the school will not take the child, and Toulouse says so outright: “aucune admission ne sera faite par l’école sans demande d’inscription préalable à la mairie”.

1. The town hall. You apply to enrol the child at the address where you live. Timing: for the new school year, enrolment is usually from March and no later than June, and some communes open earlier. If you arrive in the middle of the year, they enrol during the year.
2. An assessment, if the child is 6 or older. The town hall refers you to specialists, who look at French, other languages and school skills in the language the child studied in before. Under 6 there is no assessment: the child joins an ordinary nursery group.
3. The enrolment certificate. The town hall issues a certificat d’inscription with the name of the school the child has been assigned to.
4. The school head. They complete the enrolment on two documents: the town hall certificate and the vaccination record (or a contraindication). You usually have to arrange the meeting yourself.

What to bring to the town hall

Under service-public’s general rule:

• ID for the parent and the child: livret de famille, ID card, passport, a birth certificate extract or a sworn statement;
• recent proof of address, which can be replaced by a sworn statement (attestation sur l’honneur).

After that it gets local. For the canteen and after-school activities they may ask for other documents, and town halls’ lists differ and are stricter than the law. So don’t stop at this list: open the page for your own town (below).

If you live with friends or without a lease

This is where town hall lists depart furthest from the general rule. The law allows a sworn statement, but town halls ask for more. Montpellier, for instance, does not accept an attestation d’hébergement from a third party, nor leases and rent receipts from private individuals. If you have no documents, contact the town hall’s education department, and if refused, the DSDEN, the departmental education service of the Éducation nationale, of your département.

How it looks in four southern cities

Nice

Pre-registration is online only, through the famille.nice.fr portal, and then you must arrange a meeting with the head of the school for your sector. Pre-registration runs from January to June for the following school year. If the family lives with a third party, you need an attestation d’hébergement, a document from the host and two proofs of residence, including this year’s tax notice (avis d’imposition), which is mandatory. A family that has just arrived may not have such a notice yet: the page doesn’t say what to do, so ask the town hall. If you enrol during the year and the child has already been at school, you need a certificat de radiation. More about the city in our guide to Nice.

Montpellier

Enrolment is open all year on the same conditions; online for the current school year, or in person at the Prest’O counters in the Hôtel de Ville or at a mairie de proximité. You need the parent’s photo ID, the livret de famille or a birth certificate extract, and proof of address no older than 3 months in the name of at least one parent. They accept a gas, electricity or water bill, home insurance, a certificate from the Sécurité Sociale or CAF, or a lease or receipt from an organisation. The campaign for 2027-2028: for children already at school in the city, CP online from 16 November to 11 December 2026; petite section for those born in 2024, from 4 to 20 January 2027; everyone else from 1 March 2027. In a special situation the town hall sends you to the Unité suivi des effectifs carte scolaire. The rest about the city is in our guide to Montpellier.

Toulouse

You submit a request online, at a Maison Toulouse Services or at a mairie de quartier; the reply comes in about 48 hours (except complicated cases), and then you book a meeting with the school head. A child of 6 or over who doesn’t speak French is assessed at the EANA 31 centre (Espace d’accueil des enfants allophones nouvellement arrivés, details below) before any enrolment. If you live with friends, the town hall asks for a copy of the host’s document, an attestation d’hébergement signed by them and a document in your name at their address: home insurance, a CAF notice, or something from France Travail or sécu. About the city: guide to Toulouse.

Marseille

In Marseille the town hall takes the enrolment request (on 11 October its page mentioned the Superminot portal); after that, as everywhere, the town hall assigns the school and you go to the school head. Check the procedure and the list of documents on the town hall’s site before you go. About the city: guide to Marseille.

A child who doesn’t speak French

Almost everyone arrives with this question. The official pages answer it like this.

• Under 6. The child is enrolled in an ordinary nursery group.
• From 6, in primary school. After the assessment the child goes to an ordinary class or to UPE2A (unité pédagogique pour élèves allophones arrivants), a class for newly arrived children without French. French lessons there alternate with lessons in a mainstream class, and the aim is to move the child onto all the mainstream lessons, most often in about a year. French support may continue for several years.
• Different ages. The child can be placed in a class of children who are not their age; in principle the gap is no more than 2 years.
• Little or no previous schooling. A teenager is taken into UPE2A full time, while music, sport and drawing are with a mainstream class. For those over 16 who no longer have to be in school, a lycée with an individual project is offered.

On the Montpellier town hall’s page this class is written “UPEAA”: the child is enrolled in the usual way and the Éducation nationale decides the school; certificates are issued at DSDEN 34.

Two small things. At enrolment the school gives out a bilingual booklet about the school system, and Russian is among its languages (the list on the page is open-ended, so we claim nothing about Ukrainian). And for a child of 8 to 12 whose first language is not French there is the DELF Prim certificate, for a teenager of 12 to 17 DELF scolaire: both are official and internationally recognised.

For parents there is OEPRE (“Ouvrir l’école aux parents”): workshops at schools, collèges and lycées, a few hours a week, for newcomers and non-EU foreigners. They teach French, explain the values of the Republic and what school expects of pupils and parents. Taking part is voluntary. According to the Montpellier académie (an undated page, with attached contacts from 2022), such groups exist in all its départements, and the nearest CASNAV branch can tell you where.

Collège and lycée: CASNAV first

For teenagers the order is different, and the town hall does not come first. According to service-public (F21304), once you have arrived you contact the CASNAV of the académie your address falls under. A psychologist of the Éducation nationale reviews the child’s school history and arranges an assessment; the results go to the académie, which assigns a school according to the child’s level and to places near home. You then enrol at the assigned school; the child must be in France at the time of enrolment, and the list of documents depends on the rectorat.

In Toulouse the first point for children from 6 to 15 is the Espace d’accueil EANA 31 at Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès: Mirail campus, CANDILIS building, 5 allée Antonio Machado, metro line A, stop Mirail Université. Opening hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 9:00-12:00 and 13:30-16:30, Wednesday 9:00-12:00 only. The offices of Toulouse’s CASNAV itself are in the rectorat (75 rue Saint-Roch), by appointment.

Once the child has been “distributed”, ordinary logic takes over. The collège is usually the one closest to home on the sector map, and the file contains a form, ID for the parents and child, the livret de famille, proof of address and a photo; each collège sets its own file. For the lycée you go by sector as a rule, and the DASEN takes the assignment decision. This is where a place is easy to lose: you must enrol the child by the deadline in the decision, or you risk losing the place you were given. If no place was assigned, contact the DSDEN; the collège head or the psychologist at the CIO can help (that service-public page is written about pupils leaving 3e, but the logic is the same, so ask).

Vaccinations

Admission to crèche, nursery school and school requires the vaccinations compulsory for the child’s age, unless there is a medical contraindication (F767, 6 January 2026). The carnet de santé is what proves them. If some are missing, a temporary admission of 3 months is possible so the child can be vaccinated; if it isn’t done in time, the head may exclude the child.

For children born before 2018, DTP is compulsory for school. For those born from 2018 the list is longer: whooping cough, Haemophilus influenzae type b, hepatitis B, pneumococcus, meningococcus C and measles-mumps-rubella are added; for those born from 2023, meningococcus of serogroups A, B, C, W and Y. How a French doctor will count vaccinations from a Russian, Ukrainian or Kazakh schedule, the official pages don’t say; that is a question for the doctor. On insurance and doctors, see our guide to Carte Vitale and sécu.

Canteen, insurance and after-school activities

Canteen. In primary school the rate is set by the commune, which may take the quotient familial into account and does not have to run a canteen at all. But if there is one, every pupil has the right to use it, and it is forbidden to admit only the children of working parents. In collège the rate is set by the département, in lycée by the region, and the canteen there is optional. Prices differ everywhere, so we quote no figures.

Insurance. In principle school insurance is not compulsory, school trips included. It can be required for the canteen and for activities the town hall organises after lessons. Civil liability may already be covered by your home insurance, and a separate policy usually costs from €10 a year per child. At a private school, check the terms at enrolment.

After lessons. Day-care after school and after-school activities are usually run by the commune: ask the town hall for the terms and prices.

Under 3: crèche, childminder and CAF help

On monenfant.fr, the portal for parents, the “Recherche d’un mode d’accueil” section is where you look for a relais petite enfance (RPE), an assistante maternelle or a crèche, and “Coûts et aides” works out the cost of a crèche and your right to the CMG for a childminder.

Crèche: what you pay under the CAF scale 2026

In a crèche that receives CAF funding (called PSU, prestation de service unique), the price isn’t set by the manager but by a national scale. The funding goes to the crèche, not to parents as a benefit: you simply pay less. An hour costs a percentage of the family’s monthly income, and that price already includes meals, hygiene products and nappies, with no extra charges or deductions (CAF, “Participations familiales - Barème 2026”). You pay for the hours the crèche bills under your contract, not for the hours your child actually spent there.

Income is taken from two years earlier: in 2026 that means 2024, the annual income before tax allowances, divided by 12. The floor is €814.62 a month and the ceiling €8,500 (CAF Allier, 11 December 2025). So with one child an hour in 2026 costs from €0.50 to €5.26 (our own calculation from the CAF scale 2026), unless the crèche applies the rate above the ceiling as well - it may, by agreement with the CAF, and the crèche’s rules will say so. If you’d rather not show your income documents, the crèche charges at the ceiling. If there is a child with a disability (AEEH) in the family, even not the one attending the crèche, the rate for one more child applies. The scale itself didn’t change in 2026.

Our own calculation from the CAF scale 2026. A family with one child and an income of €2,000 a month: 2,000 × 0.0619% = €1.24 an hour. If the contract comes to 120 hours a month, the crèche will bill about €149. With two children on the same income an hour costs €1.03, with three €0.83.

Private crèches without CAF funding don’t use this scale. You can estimate what’s left to pay with your own figures in the simulator on monenfant.fr, and the crèche works out your exact rate from your income documents.

Childminder (assistante maternelle) and the CMG

The CMG is CAF help with paying a childminder (assistante maternelle) or a garde à domicile. The conditions under service-public (F39152): the child is under 6, and a single parent may receive the CMG until the child is 12; you or your partner must be working. The work condition is not asked about if you are both studying or both doing service civique, or if you receive AAH, ASS or RSA (RSA with registration as a jobseeker). Since 1 December 2025, when a child lives alternately with each parent, both parents can receive the CMG.

Since 1 September 2025 the CMG has been calculated differently: it used to be a fixed amount, and now the CAF tops up so that, at a typical childminder’s rate, your share is the same as in a PSU crèche. Your share per hour = monthly income × the same rate as at the crèche (0.0619% for one child); for a garde à domicile the rate is twice as high. The CAF’s own example is a family with one child and an income of €2,000: its share is €1.24 an hour.

But the formula works as written only if the childminder charges the CAF’s typical rate: in 2025, €4.85 an hour net, upkeep and meal allowances included (€10.38 for a garde à domicile). If she charges more, your share rises in proportion to her rate, and the family and the CAF split the difference. Anything above €8 an hour for an assistante maternelle (€15 for a garde à domicile) the family pays in full. These are 2025 figures from the CAF presentation on the reform; our sources have no 2026 rates. The old ceiling of 5 times the hourly SMIC per day was scrapped, and so was the 16-hour minimum. The CMG covers 100% of social contributions for an assistante maternelle and 50% for a garde à domicile.

How to get it: open a personal account on caf.fr, apply, and then declare the childminder’s pay on Pajemploi every month. Pajemploi works out and pays the CMG itself and shows how much is left for you to pay. Payment starts from the month before your application, if you meet the conditions. If one parent takes the new extra birth leave, no CMG is paid for the same child, except for children born between 1 January and 30 June 2026 and premature babies who were due from 1 January 2026 (more in our guide to giving birth in France).

Micro-crèches and organisations: the CMG “structure”

If your child goes to a micro-crèche (up to 12 places, no more than €10 an hour) or to a childminder through an organisation, a different CMG applies (F345, 1 April 2026); the organisation must be approved by the préfet. It covers up to 85% of the costs, up to a ceiling. For a couple with one child under 3 the 2026 ceiling is €992.12 a month on an income up to €24,333, €855.25 on an income from €24,333 to €54,075, and €718.41 above that; income is taken for 2024. For a child aged 3-6 the ceilings are half as high: €496.06, €427.63 and €359.21.

CAF checks residence too. Under the general conditions on caf.fr you need valid proof of lawful residence and, for children born abroad, proof of lawful entry; and for family benefits overall you must live in France more than 9 months a year (no more than 92 days abroad in total). The CMG is part of the Paje; how exactly these conditions apply to you, check with your own CAF. More on CAF in our guide to CAF and APL.

School holidays 2026-2027

The south is split into two zones: Nice and Marseille are zone B, Montpellier and Toulouse are zone C (Bordeaux, Grenoble and Lyon, for reference, are zone A). The 2026 rentrée is on Tuesday 1 September.

Holidays begin after lessons on the day shown, and school resumes on the morning of the end date; where there are no Saturday lessons, summer starts on the Friday after school. On 7 May 2027 there are no lessons in any zone. Take zones and dates only from service-public (A18563, updated 16 July 2026, based on the arrêté of 22 October 2025): tables from past years may show a different layout.

Home education and CNED

Since the 2021 law you can teach a child at home only with DASEN authorisation. You apply between 1 March and 31 May before the school year; if the grounds arise after 31 May you can apply later, and if the child is at risk, at any time of the year. The answer comes within two months, and silence counts as consent. The authorisation also serves as the positive opinion if you want to enrol the child in CNED free of charge. But a full school class at CNED is open only on three of the four grounds, so distance learning is not a substitute for enrolment if you simply haven’t found a place.

Russian for your child

School gives French; the home language is left to you. In the south we found seven children’s weekend schools in four cities: Nice, Marseille, Montpellier and Nîmes. We don’t retell timetables, ages and prices; they are collected in the directory of Russian schools and clubs, together with the Sunday schools at Nice’s churches and courses for adults.

What people say in our chat

These are the experiences of members of our chat in 2026, not official rules. Lists of documents and decisions about the school stay with the town hall and the académie.

• Documents for enrolment. In a thread from late May (four messages) and two replies in September, the answers agreed: birth and marriage certificates are apostilled in the country that issued them, a notarised translation is not needed there, and the translation is done by a sworn translator in France. How the apostille and translation work for your country is covered in the guide to apostille and translation; the exact list is the town hall’s and the school’s own, as said above.
• Translating vaccination records. One member wrote that the school and town hall accepted a translation without certification, but that others were asked for a sworn one. How a doctor will count the vaccinations is in the vaccinations section above.
• How children without French are placed. In 11 messages from June 2026 people said the same thing: first a French-level test, then a school or lycée that has a group for newly arrived pupils. A chat member said: after testing, their child was offered a lycée not near home but the one where the group of children without French is formed. Another member said: children aged 11 and 13 without French were enrolled in an ordinary school in an integration class, no other subjects were tested, and the school was set by the area where they lived.
• Private schools sous contrat. One member quoted about €1,200-1,800 a year without the canteen, the state curriculum, and no tie to where you live. That is one person’s figure, so check each school’s own fees.
• UPE2A. From what people said, such classes are mostly in state schools. Whether private ones have them, members disagree, so ask the DSDEN.
• Time to school. In a discussion of Montpellier districts (about 53 messages, 12 members) the criteria caused no argument: a tram nearby, time to school, the journey across the area in the morning and late in the evening. A chat member said: the children go to school in Montpellier, the family lives in a suburb, it is 30-40 minutes by car, and because the two schools run different timetables they are choosing a home closer to the tram.

Still have questions about enrolment at your town hall, about schools and UPE2A classes? Ask in our Telegram chat for someone who went through enrolment in your town.

The “Vibe South of France” community chat on Telegram - school, children and moving to the South of France

See also

• Moving to the South of France: documents step by step
• First 30 Days in France: What to Do, in Order
• CAF and APL: Housing Benefit in France
• Carte Vitale and sécu: health insurance in France 2026
• Studying in France for Russians and Ukrainians 2026
• Russian Schools in the South of France
• Russians in Nice · Russians in Montpellier · Toulouse for our own · Marseille for our people