Admission requirements and choice of ECEC setting

For children below 3 years of age

For children under the age of 3, parents are free to choose the type of childcare that suits them, between centre- or home-based provision, taking into account their availability. The different childcare centre-based settings are:

• Collective crèches allow the regular reception of children under three years of age:

• traditional neighbourhood crèches, located near the child's home;

• mini-crèches which welcome children under the same regulatory conditions as traditional neighbourhood crèches, but whose premises are in individual houses or social premises;

• company crèches, set up at the parents' place of work, with timetables adapted to those of the company or the administration;

• parental crèches, managed by the parents themselves, grouped together in a non-profit association, to take turns taking care of children under three years of age.

• The multi-reception establishments offer regular and occasional reception for children under the age of six. They frequently offer a combination of several collective reception methods: regular reception places (crèche or kindergarten type), occasional reception places (drop-in day-care type) or multipurpose reception places (sometimes-regular reception, sometimes-occasional reception).

• Family reception services or family crèches include approved childminders by the general council of the residence départment, who welcome children to their home for part of the day and go to regular intervals in a collective reception structure for different activities. This type of structure is supervised and managed like collective crèches.

For children aged over 3

Parents resident in France are obliged to enrol their child(ren) in a public or private nursery school (ISCED level 02), regardless of nationality. Children must be admitted in the year in which they turn 3, but they may also be admitted from the age of 2, depending on the number of places available and other priority criteria (geographical or socio-economic, for example). Entry to nursery school also requires a document certifying that the child has undergone all the compulsory vaccinations for his or her age, or that there are no contraindications.

As a rule, children are assigned to the school in the school district where their parents live. However, parents may ask to enrol their child in another school sector or in another commune. In the first case, they must apply to their local town hall for an exemption. In the second case, a request for admission must be sent to the commune concerned. Requests for exemptions and reception may be refused.

The municipality where the parents reside carries out the registration of each child. If there is no place in a pre-primary school in the municipality, the parents can lodge an appeal with the mayor or initiate a contentious procedure with the administrative court. The lack of places are not common. 

When they exist, they relate to three-year-old children in areas of demographic growth or in difficulty in providing school premises. In these cases, priority is given to the oldest children.

Group size and child/staff ratios

In France, regulations define the maximum number of children per facility.

For children below 3 years of age

• Collective crèches allow the regular reception of children under three years of age:

• traditional neighbourhood crèches have a limited capacity of 60 places per unit;

• mini-crèches which welcome children up to 9 children;

• company crèches is also up to 60 places per unit;

• parental crèches’ capacity, up to 20 places, can exceptionally be increased to twenty-five by decision of the chairman of the general council, taking into account the needs of families.

• Kindergartens can accommodate 80 places per unit.

• Some of multi-reception establishments also provide both collective and "family" reception: in this case, their overall reception capacity is limited to 100 places.

• Family reception services or family crèches’ reception capacity cannot be greater than 150 places.

According to Article R2324-41 of the Code of Public Health, centre-based childcare facilities with a capacity equal to or greater than 25 places must have at least half a position of state-qualified childminder (diplôme d'Etat d'éducateur de jeunes enfants, ISCED 6), plus an additional half a post for every twenty places above 25. Family reception services with a capacity of thirty places or more have at least half a post plus an additional half a post for each additional full 30 places above 30.

In France, the minimum qualification to work as an assistant with younger children (accueil du jeune enfant) is at ISCED level 3. It may be a one-year training course (auxiliaire de puériculture) or a two-year training course (accompagnant éducatif petite enfance).

For children aged over 3

The number of pupils per class differs between the grande section and the petite and moyenne sections. For the grande section (last year of nursery school), the number of pupils per class is set by regulation (Circulaire de rentrée 2019 published in the Bulletin Officiel of 29 May 2019) at 24 pupils. 

However, for the other two classes (petite section and moyenne section), it is regulated annually at department level and may therefore vary within the country: Article D.211-9 of the Education Code specifies that ‘the average number of pupils per class and the number of posts per school are defined annually by the academic director of national education services acting on behalf of the education authority rector, taking into account the general guidelines set by the minister responsible for education, depending on the characteristics of the classes, the number of pupils and the budget posts delegated to him/her, and after consulting the departmental technical committee’.

By way of example, for the 2021-2022 school year, the national average for nursery schools is 21 children per class. Teachers have the status of professeurs des écoles, i.e. they are highly qualified professionals with a Master's degree and who have passed a state competitive examination.

Annual, weekly and daily organisation

For children below 3 years of age

In centre-based childcare provision, the opening hours are fixed by each setting: the manager and the director, in dialogue with the other partners (municipalities, staff, parents, etc.), define them. As a general rule, the opening periods correspond to the school year (beginning of September - beginning of July). The usual hours of centre-based ECEC centres are weekdays between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. Company crèches adapt their hours to those of the company.

Regarding the organization of the day - just as an example - the activities generally take place as follows:

• welcoming children in the morning (between 8:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m.);

• educational activities ( from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.);

• meal (from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. / 1 p.m.);

• nap (12:30 p.m. / 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.);

• educational activities (2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.);

• afternoon snack (4:30 p.m.);

• parents welcome / departure (after the snack at 5 p.m.).

The so-called educational activity is mainly developed in the morning, before the meal. The afternoon is more devoted to free games or reading.

For children aged over 3

For children over the age of 3 who are enrolled in pre-primary education, the organisation of time is very similar to that in primary education.

Organisation of the school year

Article L. 521-1 of the Code of Education sets the length of the school year at "36 weeks of lessons distributed into five work periods, of about the same length, separated by four holiday periods". The Minister for Education, for a period of three years, draws up a national school calendar. It may be adapted, under conditions laid down by decree, to take account of local situations.

Organisation of the week

The reform of school hours in 2013 established that teaching must be provided within the framework of a nine half-day week including Wednesday mornings. However, the decree of 27 June 2017 once again makes it possible to organise the school week over four days as long as there is a local consensus. It broadens the scope of derogations to the organisation of the school week to make possible a week comprising eight half-days spread over four days. 

The organisation of school time in schools is decided by the Directeur académique des services de l'éducation nationale (DASEN) acting on behalf of the Recteur d'académie. When the DASEN receives a joint proposal from a municipality or a public establishment for inter-municipal cooperation (EPCI) and one or more school councils, it may authorise adjustments to the organisation of the school week. 

Under certain conditions, the DASEN may authorise derogations to the organisation of the school week concerning: 

• the maximum hours of 5.30 hours per day and 3.30 hours per half-day ;

• the organisation of a half-day of lessons on Saturday morning instead of Wednesday morning;

• freeing up an afternoon for extracurricular activities;

• shortening the school week (less than 24 hours) by compensating with shorter holidays.

Any authorisation to adapt the organisation of the school week is subject to:

• signature of a territorial educational project (PEdT) by the local authority concerned;

• submission to the DASEN of a joint proposal for the organisation of the school week by the municipality or EPCI and one or more school councils.

Organization of the day

In accordance with the provisions of article D. 521-12 of the Education Code, the Academic Director of National Education Services sets the start and end times for each school in the département. At present, teaching starts between 8am and 9am in the vast majority of primary schools (nursery, primary and elementary schools). In schools in overseas regions and departments, lessons can start as early as 7.00am.

The number of hours of instruction is 24 per week. Complementary educational activities are organised for small groups of pupils and are added to the 24 hours of teaching per week. These activities take the form of help for pupils experiencing learning difficulties, assistance with personal work or the implementation of an activity provided for in the school project, where applicable in conjunction with the local educational project. The general organisation of these complementary educational activities is decided by the national education inspector for the district, on the recommendation of the teachers' council. The provisions adopted are included in the school project.

In addition, as stipulated in article D521-10 of the Education Code, the school day and half-day may not exceed 5.5 hours and 3.5 hours respectively. Finally, the duration of the lunch break may not be less than 1h30.