French schools for your kids: maternelle to lycée, enrolled
The short version
- Public school is free, good and mandatory from age 3; your address decides the assigned school
- Enroll at the mairie first: birth certificates, proof of address and vaccination records do the heavy lifting
- Public schools absorb non-French speakers with dedicated UPE2A support classes
- Private sous contrat schools cost surprisingly little; true international schools cost real money
French public school is free, secular, nationally standardized and better than its modest reputation among expats. Enrollment is not an admissions process, there are no applications to win; it is a paperwork errand at the town hall, and resident children are entitled to a seat whenever in the year they arrive.
The system runs on your address. The carte scolairethe school zoning map that assigns each address to a public school assigns every home to a specific public school, which removes school shopping from the equation unless you opt out into private. Here is the ladder, the enrollment routine and the honest answer to the language question.
The ladder, decoded
| School | Ages | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Crèche | Under 3 | Daycare, not school; municipal spots via the mairie |
| École maternelle | 3 to 6 | Preschool, mandatory from age 3 |
| École élémentaire | 6 to 11 | Primary school |
| Collège | 11 to 15 | Middle school, ends with the brevet exam |
| Lycée | 15 to 18 | High school, ends with the bac |
Schooling is compulsory from age 3, so a child who turns 3 by the rentrée belongs in maternelle. The upside of starting that young is free, structured, full-day preschool; the other upside is that maternelle is where non-French-speaking kids become French-speaking kids almost without noticing.
Enrolling, step by step
The route runs through the mairiethe town hall, your city's administrative front desk: you enroll there first, receive a certificate of inscription naming the assigned school, then finalize with the school's director. For a September start, do the mairie step in spring; arriving mid-year, do it the week you land and the mairie will place your child within days.
Checklist
Vaccines, the one hard requirement: France requires the standard childhood vaccinations, 11 for children born in recent years, and the US schedule covers nearly all of them. A first visit to a French pediatrician reconciles the records and fills any gaps; the healthcare guide covers finding one.
The language question
Public schools have seen your situation before. Newly arrived non-francophone kids are assessed and assigned to UPE2Aunité pédagogique pour élèves allophones arrivants, the intake program for non-French-speaking pupils support: intensive French several hours a week inside the normal school, alongside a regular class for everything else. Younger children typically mainstream out of it within a year; teachers watch it happen faster than parents believe it will.
Age is the honest variable. Under about 10, immersion simply works. Teenagers face the harder deal, learning French while grades start to count, which is where bilingual sections or a private international track earn their consideration.
Public, private, international
Privé sous contratprivate schools under contract with the state, which pays the teachers schools teach the national curriculum with state-paid teachers, charge commonly a few hundred to around a thousand euros a year, and are often Catholic in name while enrolling everyone. They are the affordable middle path and popular with French families too.
Fully international and bilingual schools run their own curricula with real tuition, often five figures a year. Worth it for a short stay or an exam system you must return to; rarely necessary just because your child starts with zero French. Some public collèges and lycées also run sections internationales, free bilingual tracks with competitive entry.
Cantine, hours and the rhythm
School days run long by US standards, with a Wednesday that is free or half-day depending on the commune. The cantinethe school lunch service serves a proper several-course lunch with pricing scaled to family income, and périscolaire care bookends the day for working parents; both are arranged at the mairie, usually in the same visit as enrollment. The year runs September to early July, punctuated by two-week vacations every six weeks or so on a three-zone national calendar.
School calendars on education.gouv.fr
We arrive mid-year. Can my kid start right away?
Yes. The right to a school place follows residence, not the calendar. Do the mairie inscription as soon as you have any proof of address, and expect your child to be in class within days rather than weeks. Mid-year arrivals are routine for schools near international job hubs.
My child speaks zero French. Will they sink?
The first weeks are hard and tearful, then it turns. With UPE2A support and playground immersion, most primary-age kids are functional by the spring and fluent within two years, usually with a better accent than yours. Keep English alive at home with reading; the goal is a bilingual kid, not a swapped language.
What about children under 3?
Crèche spots are municipal, cheap and scarce; the standing joke is that you apply while pregnant. The common alternative is an assistante maternelle, a licensed childminder hosting a few children at home. Both routes are subsidized through CAF, the same benefits office covered in the housing aid guide.