Italian childcare splits cleanly at age three, and the two halves behave completely differently. One is scarce, scored and means-tested. The other is nearly universal and nearly free.
Knowing which one you are dealing with is most of the battle.
Under three: l'asilo nido
l'asilo nido: the nursery, for roughly three months to three years. Usually just il nido.
There is no legal right to a place. Municipal capacity is well below demand in most cities, and that shapes everything below.
il nido comunale: run by the comune, the municipality. Cheapest, most oversubscribed.
il nido privato: private. Available, more expensive.
il nido convenzionato: private but under agreement with the comune, which subsidises places. The middle path, and the one people overlook.
la graduatoria: the ranking list. This is the mechanism that surprises newcomers most. You do not join a queue; you submit an application and are scored.
il punteggio: your score. Points come from things like both parents working, single parenthood, disability, siblings already attending, and residence in the comune. The scoring criteria are published, they differ by city, and they are worth reading before you apply because some points are within your control.
la domanda: the application. l'iscrizione: the enrolment, once you have a place.
il bando: the official call for applications, published by the comune with a window. Miss the window and you wait for the next one.
The number that governs everything
l'ISEE: the Indicatore della Situazione Economica Equivalente, an official measure of household economic position calculated from income and assets.
It determines your nursery fee, your eligibility for the national nursery contribution, and a good deal else in Italian life. You obtain it through a CAF, a tax assistance centre, or through INPS, and it must be renewed every year.
la retta: the fee. At a municipal nido it is banded by ISEE, so two families at the same nursery can pay very different amounts.
il bonus asilo nido: a national contribution towards nursery fees, paid by INPS, the social security institute, and scaled by ISEE. You claim it yourself; it does not arrive automatically.
Three to six: la scuola dell'infanzia
Everything changes here.
la scuola dell'infanzia: preschool for three to six year olds. The older name scuola materna is still what many people say.
It is not compulsory, and attendance is close to universal. La scuola dell'infanzia statale, the state version, is free apart from meals, and there is effectively a place for every child. The scarcity problem of the nido simply stops.
la scuola paritaria: a private school operating within the state system, frequently run by a religious order, and charging fees.
la sezione: the class or group.
la maestra: the teacher at scuola dell'infanzia. At the nido the staff are educatrici, which is a different qualification and a word worth getting right.
l'anticipo: early entry, allowing children who turn three by a certain date to start before their birthday. Rules vary by school and by year.
The settling-in, again
l'inserimento: the settling-in period, and Italy's counterpart to the German Eingewöhnung covered in its own article and to the Dutch wenperiode in the Dutch one.
Italian inserimento is generally shorter than the German version, one to two weeks rather than four to six, and more variable between institutions. The principle is identical: a parent present at first, separations extended gradually, and the pace set by the child.
il colloquio: the initial conversation with staff about your child's habits, sleep and food, held before the inserimento starts.
The rest of the practical vocabulary
la mensa: the canteen, and the meals, charged separately and often through a top-up account.
il tempo pieno / il tempo ridotto: full-time and reduced hours.
le dimissioni: withdrawal from the place, with notice.
il certificato vaccinale: proof of vaccination, which is a condition of enrolment in Italy for children under six and enforced.
What to actually do, in order
While pregnant or on arrival: get an ISEE. Everything else depends on it and it takes time.
Watch for the bando for the nido, which usually opens in late winter for the following September, and read the punteggio criteria before you fill in the domanda.
For a child approaching three, relax somewhat: scuola dell'infanzia enrolment happens in a national window in January and there will be a place.
Learning the vocabulary
Save the stage with the word. Graduatoria as a translation is a ranking list. As the scored list the comune publishes in spring, where my points decided whether we got in it is a system you understand.
Put the bando into Translate whole. Italian administrative Italian is long-sentenced and precise, and the deadline is usually buried mid-paragraph.
Then let repetition hold it. Thirty words used hard for one year of your life.
The short version
Get the ISEE first. Under three there is no right to a place and a graduatoria decides. From three, scuola dell'infanzia is nearly universal and nearly free.
And when someone says inserimento, block out a fortnight.
Reading an Italian comune bando and losing the deadline? Put it into Vokabulo. Free to start on iPhone, iPad and in the browser. 🇮🇹
