School in Milan: the books come to you, the meals do not

Of the two services that weigh most on the September budget, in Milan one does not have to be applied for and the other does.

• Primary school textbooks do not have to be applied for. You go to a bookshop and they hand them over. No application, no ISEE, no deadline.
• School meals do have to be applied for, and the ordinary window closed on 31 July.

The good news is that the second is not a missed train. Let us take them one at a time.

Primary school books are free by law, everywhere in Italy

First, something worth knowing even if you do not live in Milan: primary school textbooks are free throughout Italy. This is set out in article 156 of legislative decree 297 of 1994, and the duty to provide them falls on the Comuni, in the way each Region decides. It applies to state schools and to state-recognised private ones.

So this is not a Milan thing: in Rome, in Naples or in Palermo primary school books are free in just the same way. What changes from one municipality to another is only how they are handed to you — with a paper voucher or an electronic one, from what date, in which shops. If you are in Rome, you will find the link to the Rome article at the bottom of this page.

The instrument is called a cedola libraria: the voucher with which the municipality pays the bookseller in your place. One limit worth knowing: the amount of the voucher is set each year by a ministerial decree, and if your class's books cost more, the difference is on the family.

In Milan the voucher is electronic: there is nothing to collect

The Comune di Milano issues the voucher in electronic form. «Electronic» means there is no sheet of paper to collect, fill in or hand over: the voucher already exists in the system, linked to your child's tax code.

To get the books you simply go to any accredited bookshop — in Milan or outside it — with two things:

• the child's codice fiscale (tax code) or tessera sanitaria (health card);
• the book list for the class they attend, the one the school provides.

The bookseller sees the voucher on their portal and hands you the books. You pay nothing and advance nothing.

The service opens in mid-July and stays open for most of the school year: in 2025/2026 the vouchers could be used from 15 July to 31 May. The exact dates for the current year are on the Comune's page, which you will find among the sources.

Who is entitled: residents of Milan, even if the school is in another municipality. That is exactly how the Comune's communication to families puts it. You can send someone else to collect the books with a signed authorisation: ask the bookshop what exactly they want, because each one is slightly different on this.

School meals: you must apply, and if you missed July you can still do it

Enrolment in the meal service is not automatic, with one exception: from 2026/2027, children assigned a place in a municipal kindergarten are enrolled automatically, and that enrolment covers the whole kindergarten path.

For everyone else the ordinary window runs from 1 June to 31 July each year. If you are here in September and have not done it, this is the sentence that matters, and it comes from Milano Ristorazione: families resident in the Comune di Milano who did not complete enrolment within the deadline may complete it at any time. Do not wait for next June: do it now.

How:

• Online, from the Rette portal, entering your personal area with SPID (Public Digital Identity System) or CIE (Electronic Identity Card), and choosing «Moduli online / Refezione Scolastica».
• With help from a person, if you have neither SPID nor CIE: call 02.84.98.00.06, option 1, Monday to Friday between 8.30 and 12.30 and between 13.30 and 16.00, and book an appointment.

One thing that saves years of trouble: the enrolment lasts for the whole school cycle. You do not redo it every September. You redo it only when your child moves from one cycle to the next — from kindergarten to primary, from primary to middle school.

Paying less: the ISEE, and the fact that it must be requested first

The meal tariff is not the same for everyone: for Milan residents it depends on the ISEE (Equivalent Economic Situation Indicator). Without an ISEE you pay the highest band.

When you enrol online you can authorise the Comune and Milano Ristorazione to obtain the ISEE directly from the INPS database, undertaking to request it each year by 31 July. It is the most convenient road: done once, in later years the reduction applies by itself without you having to remember to hand anything in.

The ISEE, however, is not immediate: between filing the declaration and receiving the certificate there are normally ten working days, which is two real weeks. At a CAF (tax assistance centre) or a patronato it is free, because they work under agreement with INPS. If you do not have one yet, that is what to do today — before enrolling, not after.

A warning about reductions: those who become resident in Milan during the year gain access to the reduced rates reserved for residents from the month following the request. Reductions, in other words, apply from when you ask for them, not before.

How you pay, and how you do not

Two ways only: direct debit (SDD) or a PagoPA notice. A bank transfer is not accepted: if you pay by transfer you risk the payment not being registered and finding yourself chased for a fee you had already paid.

Transport: only if you live far from the school

The municipal school bus in Milan is not for everyone, and it is worth knowing before losing half a day over it. It is for pupils in kindergarten, primary and lower secondary school who live outside the urban centre and more than one kilometre from the school nearest their home. If you do not meet both conditions, the service is not for you.

If you do: the application is made online with SPID or CIE, and you pay an enrolment fee per household plus an attendance contribution linked to the ISEE. The current year's amounts are on the Comune's page.

The Region's Dote Scuola: mark it down for March

Here is the real difference between one place and another, and it does not concern primary school: it concerns middle and high school. From there upwards books are not free, and help does exist but it is on application, with the ISEE and with a deadline — and it changes from one region to the next. In Lombardy it is called Dote Scuola and the Region provides it; in Rome they are the buoni libro and the Comune provides them, with different windows and amounts.

The «Materiale didattico» component of Dote Scuola is a contribution towards books, tools and technological equipment, and it concerns students of lower and upper secondary schools and vocational training courses.

The conditions of the last call we verified: residence in Lombardy, not having turned 21, and an ISEE no higher than €15,748.78. The window, though, is in spring: for 2026/2027 applications ran from 24 March to 7 May 2026, and it is closed.

If you have children in middle or high school, this is the date to mark now for next year: you look in March, on the Regione Lombardia calls website.

If you are resident in another municipality

Milan's book vouchers go only to residents of Milan. If you live in Sesto San Giovanni, in Cinisello or in another municipality and your child attends a Milanese school, the books are provided — if they are provided — by the municipality where you are resident, not by Milan: ask there, because every municipality has its own rules and its own dates.

If instead you are not registered as resident in any Italian municipality, ask the Comune di Milano directly before buying the books out of your own pocket: the address of the office that deals with it is ED.cedolelibrarie@comune.milano.it.

With Bahay Italia

These are exactly the deadlines the app keeps for you: you register them once and it warns you in time, in your language, next year as this year. We ask you for no documents: we keep only the dates.

The dates and amounts in this article are those published by the Comune di Milano, by Milano Ristorazione and by Regione Lombardia as of the verification date shown above. The exact meal and transport tariffs change according to the ISEE band and the type of school: the only place where they are right are the official pages, which you will find among the sources. If your situation has something particular about it — residence being processed, an ISEE that does not arrive, an enrolment that does not show up — a CAF or a patronato will help you free of charge.