The Italian region of Emilia-Romagna will permanently allow children to begin primary school activities on 31 August, following a successful pilot programme that saw widespread participation and aims to support families and foster regional cooperation.
From next school year, children across Emilia-Romagna will be able to start primary-school activities on 31 August in every one of the region’s 330 municipalities, as the regional government turns its “Settembre Insieme” pilot into a permanent policy. Michele de Pascale and Isabella Conti announced the move at a press conference in Bologna, saying the scheme will be folded into a future regional law on support for birth rates and parenting.
The first year of the programme has been marked by strong take-up. The region said it received 9,253 applications and involved 8,005 children, including 600 pupils with disabilities, a figure officials cited as evidence of the project’s inclusive design. The initiative reached 40 municipalities across the 14 Atuss areas, along with 143 state schools and 16 private schools, offering free educational, sporting, cultural, recreational and social activities in the two weeks before the official start of lessons.
Regional officials said the scheme was designed to help families manage the long gap between the end of summer and the return to school, while also building a wider network between schools, councils, the third sector, associations, educators and other local operators. The region described the experiment as unprecedented in Italy for its scale and for the fact that it is being coordinated at regional level rather than left to individual schools or municipalities.
The next phase will focus on consultation before the scheme is expanded. From mid-September, the region plans to circulate an online survey to families, followed in October by focus groups with councils, local authorities, the third sector and the school world, alongside talks already under way with Anci and trade unions. A public review in November is expected to feed into guidelines for the 2027 version of the policy.
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