Good to know
Good to Know
- The International School of Bologna (ISB) is the only full IB continuum (PYP–MYP–DP) school located centrally in Bologna, making it the default choice for most relocating nomad/expat families needing an English-medium K-12 pathway.
- Kinder International School Bologna is the city's oldest international school (since 1967) but does not publish its tuition — get a direct quote before assuming any online estimate is accurate.
- If you need a French curriculum, École Française de Bologne offers a bilingual French-Italian track; note it's oriented toward the French-speaking community rather than a general international/English-medium option.
- The International School of Modena (IB, ages 3–18) is a genuine alternative some Bologna-based expat families use, but it's roughly a 40-minute drive from Bologna, so it's really only practical if you're settling on the western edge of the metro area.
- Full-time English-medium K-12 options in Bologna are limited compared to Milan or Rome — book school visits and confirm space well ahead of a move, especially for IB Diploma (Grades 11-12) seats at ISB.
- ISB runs on a rolling, individualized admissions process rather than one fixed deadline — start the conversation with the Admissions Director as early as possible once a Bologna move is likely, especially for a September start.
- ISB charges a separate one-time, non-refundable admission fee on top of annual tuition, and requires a minimum 6-month enrollment commitment.
- Kinder International School Bologna does not publish its fees, so pricing and current availability have to be requested directly from the school.
- Italy's homeschooling process (istruzione parentale) is genuinely legal, but it resets every single year — the declaration of intent and the child's validation exam are annual obligations, not a one-time registration.
- No specific input requirements (qualifications, minimum income) are demanded to homeschool in Italy, but families should expect real bureaucratic variation in how supportively an individual school head treats the arrangement.
- We could not confirm an established, Bologna-specific homeschooling co-op or meetup group — only national Italian homeschooling organizations and generic 'search local Facebook groups' advice exist in available sources, so newly arriving families may need to build or find their own local network rather than assume one is already there.
International Schools
International School of Bologna (ISB)
- Location
- Historic center of Bologna (Via del Ronco / Via della Libertà area); a new 11,000 sqm campus in Zola Predosa is planned to open September 2027
- Age Range
- 3 to 18 (Early Years to Grade 12)
- Curriculum
- International Baccalaureate (IB) continuum — PYP (ages 3–11), MYP (ages 11–16), and Diploma Programme (ages 16–19); students may also opt to sit the Italian 'Terza Media' exam in Grade 8
- Accreditation
- CIS (Council of International Schools) and NEASC accredited; authorized IB World School
- Language Of Instruction
- English
Tuition
- Notes
- Range varies by grade level, from Reception (half-day) up to the Diploma Programme (Grades 11-12). One-time admission fees run EUR 1,100–1,500 depending on grade; annual registration fee EUR 750–1,000; second and subsequent children receive tuition discounts of 10-30%.
Annual Tuition Range
- Low
- €9,660
- High
- €22,330
Bologna International School (BIS)
- Location
- Via del Ronco 22, Bologna
- Age Range
- Nursery through Grade 13
- Curriculum
- Cambridge International Curriculum
- Language Of Instruction
- English
Tuition
- Notes
- Specific tuition figures were not publicly available at time of research; contact the school directly for current fees.
Kinder International School Bologna
- Location
- Bologna (oldest international school in the city, operating since 1967)
- Age Range
- 2 to 16
- Curriculum
- IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) — authorized for preschool and primary; IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) candidate school
- Language Of Instruction
- English, Italian (bilingual teaching staff)
Tuition
- Notes
- The school does not publish its fees; third-party aggregator listings suggest a rough range in the EUR 12,000–22,000/year band, but this is unconfirmed — contact the school directly.
ÉCole Française De Bologne
- Location
- Via Azzo Gardino, 48, Bologna
- Age Range
- Maternelle (preschool) through Lycée (high school)
- Curriculum
- French national curriculum, accredited by the French Ministry of Education; bilingual French-Italian program with English also taught
- Language Of Instruction
- French, Italian (with English as an additional subject)
Tuition
- Notes
- Tuition figures not publicly available in research; typically follows French lycée-abroad fee structures — contact the school directly.
Scuola Waldorf Di Bologna
- Location
- Via della Libertà, 6, Bologna
- Age Range
- Kindergarten through Grade 8
- Curriculum
- Waldorf/Steiner pedagogy (not an English-medium international curriculum, but often used by expat families seeking an alternative pedagogical approach)
- Language Of Instruction
- Italian
Tuition
- Notes
- Tuition figures not publicly available in research.
Bilingual Early Years Options
Calicanto (Bilingual Nursery/kindergarten)
- Location
- Via dello Scalo 16, Bologna
- Age Range
- 0 to 6 years only (nursery and pre-school — not a full K-12 option)
- Curriculum
- Italian early-years pedagogy with full English-language immersion ('Learning by Languages' method), influenced by Reggio Emilia-style approaches
- Language Of Instruction
- English immersion with Italian-speaking staff
Tuition
- Notes
- Tuition figures not publicly available; this is an early-years nursery/kindergarten, not a school covering primary or secondary grades.
Supplementary Language Schools Not Full Time
Bilbò Academy
- Type
- Independent English-language school offering group classes (not a full-day K-12 school)
- Note
- Runs English classes for ages 4 and up, morning through evening; useful as a language supplement rather than a primary schooling option.
Homeschooling
- Who Can Homeschool
- Any parent or guardian who is not legally incapacitated can choose this path; there is no minimum income requirement or mandatory teaching credential.
- Legal Status Summary
- Homeschooling (called istruzione parentale, sometimes educazione parentale) is legal and constitutionally grounded in Italy, but it is a regulated, paperwork-heavy path rather than an unregulated one.
- Compulsory Schooling Ages
- Schooling is compulsory in Italy between ages 6 and 16, and foreign minors in Italy are subject to the same compulsory-education framework regardless of their or their parents' immigration status.
- Bologna Specific Community
- No documented, Bologna-specific homeschooling co-op, in-person meetup group, or local support organization could be verified through official or clearly authoritative sources for this response. What exists and is verifiable are national-level Italian homeschooling organizations and informal channels — for example Libera Schola (an advocacy foundation that works with the Ministry of Education on homeschooling policy) and other national associations (e.g. LAIF, EDUpar) — plus generic 'search Facebook for istruzione parentale + your region' advice repeated in multiple sources. None of these sources point to an established Bologna-based physical co-op, so a family should not assume one exists on arrival; it would need to be found or formed locally.
- Practical Note
- Because verification and tolerance of homeschooling can vary by individual school head and region, families are advised in multiple sources to confirm specific local requirements with the dirigente scolastico of their nearest school or the regional education office (Ufficio Scolastico Regionale) rather than relying solely on national-level guidance.
- Country Context
- Italy
- National Scale Context
- Homeschooling remains uncommon in Italy but has grown substantially, rising from roughly 4,000 students before the pandemic to over 15,000-16,000 nationally in recent years, with higher prevalence in northern regions such as Lombardy and Piemonte.
Legal Basis
- Article 30 of the Italian Constitution establishes parents' right and duty to educate their children.
- Legislative Decree 297/1994 (Articles 111 and 112) provides the specific legal framework for istruzione parentale.
- Ministerial Decree of 8 February 2021 and Legislative Decree 62/2017 govern the non-standardized annual assessment exams homeschooled children must sit.
Annual Requirements
- Parents must submit a written declaration each year, before the start of the school year, to the head (dirigente scolastico) of the state school nearest to their residence, stating their intent to home-educate.
- The declaration must assert the family's 'technical and economic capacity' to provide the instruction — no specific qualifications, minimum income, or supporting legal documents are required to back this self-certification, though the school head has a duty to verify the claim's plausibility.
- The homeschooled child must sit an annual esame di idoneità (eligibility/validation exam) as an external candidate at a state or state-recognized school to demonstrate grade-appropriate progress.
- For non-Italian-speaking or newly arrived children, schools are expected to assess progress relative to the child's actual starting point and stage of learning rather than requiring native-level performance.
International Bilingual Schools
- Overview
- Bologna has a small, concentrated international/bilingual school market rather than a wide range of options. The two main names are the International School of Bologna (ISB), a full IB continuum school in English, and Kinder International School Bologna, a bilingual school for younger children. Because ISB is a relatively small school (roughly 280-300 students total), specific grade levels can fill up, so timing matters more than in cities with many competing international schools.
- General Timing Recommendation
- For any Bologna international/bilingual school, the realistic approach for a relocating family is: (1) contact the school as soon as a move to Bologna is even reasonably likely, since neither ISB nor Kinder publish a hard once-a-year deadline the way some larger international-school markets do; (2) expect a rolling, individualized admissions conversation rather than a single application window; (3) budget for the one-time admission fee at ISB in addition to tuition; (4) if arriving mid-year, be prepared that space in a specific grade may simply not exist until the following school year starts.
Schools
International School of Bologna (ISB)
- Profile
- IB World School offering the full continuum (PYP, MYP, DP) for ages 3-18, instruction in English, located in the historic center at Via della Libertà 2.
- Sibling Discount
- 10-30% depending on number of siblings enrolled, per third-party listings — confirm exact tiers with the school directly.
- Waitlist And Timing Reality
- There is no single published 'admissions season' deadline like a UK/US independent school — ISB runs a rolling inquiry-to-application pipeline year-round via OpenApply, and the Admissions Director works case-by-case with relocating families. In practice, because total enrollment is modest (under 300 students) and many spots are filled by long-term expat and mixed-nationality families already living in Bologna, popular entry points (early Kindergarten/Reception and any grade where existing cohorts are full) can have limited space, especially for a family arriving mid-school-year. Applying several months ahead of an intended start (ideally by spring for a September start) gives more room to secure a place and arrange the visa/residency paperwork in parallel.
- Minimum Enrollment Commitment
- A minimum enrollment period of around 6 months is required by the school.
Application Process
- Families start with an informal inquiry, then formally apply through ISB's online admissions portal (OpenApply).
- The Admissions Director reviews the application and guides families through next steps rather than there being a single fixed test-based cutoff.
- ISB does not allow 'anticipare' — i.e. moving a child up a grade level beyond the school's normal promotion rules — so families hoping to skip a grade for a foreign-curriculum reason should not count on this.
Annual Tuition Range
- Low
- €11,730
- High
- €22,330
- Note
- Varies by grade level; sources give slightly different low-end figures (one lists a low of roughly EUR 9,500), so treat this as an approximate band and confirm current-year figures directly with the school.
Required Documents Typical
- Completed OpenApply application form
- Previous school reports/transcripts
- Passport/ID copies
- Proof of residency status in Italy (relevant for visa/residency-linked enrollment)
- Any learning support or special educational needs documentation, since ISB positions itself as inclusive
Admission Fees One Time Nonrefundable
Reception / Kindergarten / Transition / Grades 1-5
- Reception / Kindergarten / Transition / Grades 1 5
- €1,100
Grades 6-10
- Grades 6 10
- €1,500
Diploma (Grades 11-12)
- Diploma (Grades 11 12)
- €1,500
Kinder International School Bologna
- Profile
- Bilingual school for younger children, operating since 1967, using a learning-by-doing method with bilingual teachers in an international, cosmopolitan setting.
- Fees Transparency
- This school does not publish its fees publicly, so pricing and admissions timelines must be requested directly from the school.
- Application Process
- No standardized public admissions calendar was found; families should contact the school directly for current openings, required documents, and lead time, particularly given it enrolls younger children where places may turn over annually.
AI-generated estimateData refreshed July 2026
This section has no cited sources.
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Data last updated July 2026 · Verify anything important.