As in previous years, the process in Portugal is predominantly online. Let's talk about the enrollment deadlines, depending on the grade, the required documents, the intricacies of translation and what to do if you have not had time to apply online.
So, the enrollment process in Portugal is called matrículas escolares.
The school enrollment calendar for the 2024/2025 school year (ano letivo) for the entire school system is as follows (enrollment dates are different for different school years/grades):
- April 15 through May 15 - preschool and 1st grade;
- June 22 through July 2 - grades 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11;
- July 6-12 - grades 2, 3, 4 and 5;
- July 15 through July 20 - students in grades 10 and 12.
What is the meaning and difference between enrollment (matrícula) and renewal of enrollment (renovação da matrícula)? Enrollment means the very first enrollment in pre-school or compulsory schooling (1st year of the 1st cycle of basic education (1.º ano do 1.º ciclo do ensino básico), or any other year in the case of transfer of students from international education systems), that is, the initial registration of the child in the Portuguese educational system, which does not happen automatically. Renewal of enrollment, on the contrary, occurs whenever a student moves from one school year to another, after the first enrollment in the system. As a rule, enrollment is automatically renewed.
What does it mean to change a training program (mudança de percurso formative)?
A change of educational program is one of the situations where renewal is not automatic. An example of such a change would be a student attending a regular school who wishes to switch to distance learning or vice versa.
Is it possible to apply outside the deadline? If the application is submitted on time, the specific day (first day of submission or last day) does not matter for obtaining a place in the desired school. In the case of pre-school and elementary school students, applications submitted before May 15 are given priority and the rest will be considered on a residual basis.
Parents may still apply for enrollment after the normal enrollment deadlines, but the school principal must set a deadline in accordance with the statutory limits. Admission is subject to the availability of places in the classes formed. Pupils whose parents have made a timely application for admission are given first consideration for a place.
What about getting a medical examination (exames médicos) before school? In Portugal, pupils are not required to have a medical examination before entering school or moving on to the next grade. However, despite this, the Ministry of Education (Ministério da Educação) recommends that you contact the Programa de Saúde Infantil e Juvenil da Direção-Geral da Saúde (Programa de Saúde Infantil e Juvenil da Direção-Geral da Saúde), which is mainly run through the health clinics in your place of residence, for your own peace of mind, so to speak. Beforehand, it is necessary to register a patient number in the National Health Service System (NUSS). Its purpose is to schedule appointments at key age periods corresponding to important events in the child's life and to align these appointments with the chronological schedule recommended in the new National Vaccination Program (Programa Nacional de Vacinação (PNV)), in order to reduce the number of visits to health facilities.
Where can I enroll in school? It is still preferable to submit the documents online, on the Portal das Matrículas, where you must select the "Login for Parents/Guardians" profile (Login da/o Encarregada/o de Educação) and log in with your access data by authorization through the Tax Administration Portal (Autoridade Tributária (AT) with NIF or Chave Móvel Digital data. In previous years, the Ministry of Education has issued guidelines for parents on how to use the application (so-called FAQs), which can be found here. If it is not possible to enroll in school online (e.g. because you do not have the password to your personal account at the tax office), you can do it in person. You should contact the relevant services of the educational institution (estabelecimento de educação e de ensino) in the student's place of residence, regardless of your preference for the location of the school (you can simply go to the nearest school and they will direct you further). These services will register the enrollment electronically for you.
What technical means should you have to submit documents online? As we have already mentioned, to start working with the portal you will need either access to the tax office or a digital key. Also, although it is not a prerequisite for enrollment, you may need an application to read documents in PDF format, because this is the format in which supporting documents are uploaded on the portal. It is also recommended that you clear your browser cache and refresh the Portal das Matrículas page (Ctrl+F5) for the portal to work correctly. You should also disable any content blockers that may be installed on your device.
What documents will you need to apply to the school?
To submit the online version, you will only need the parent's and child's ID cards, a certificate of residence from the Junta e Freguesia (atestado de residência), a digital photo of the student, as well as the tax identification number (NIF) of the child and the student, and (if available) the social security identification number (NISS) of the parent and student. Further, at the stage of requesting the originals directly from the enrollment school (in addition to the documents already listed above) you will need:
- Child's birth certificate (if not Portuguese, with Portuguese translation and apostille, if applicable);
- National Health Service (NUSS) user number;
- If your child studied before enrolling in a local school outside of Portugal, proof (certificate) of successful completion of the previous school year will be required (with Portuguese translation and apostille, if applicable);
- You may also need a document on family composition (especially if you have several schoolchildren or if you are counting on social support from the state); to obtain confirmation of family composition (comprovativo da composição do agregado familiar): it can be downloaded from your personal cabinet on the tax portal "Consultar agregado familiar" (but this is only if you have timely (before February 15 of the current year) entered data and updated information about your family.
By the way, the certificate of residence of the child can be replaced by a parent's document called Certidão Domicílio Fiscal (this is also done on the tax office website in the personal account here)
Most interestingly, at what age can you send your child to school in Portugal? Preschool education is attended by children from the age of three until they enter the first grade of basic education, although it is not compulsory. If a child is three years old at the time of December 31 of the current year, he or she can be enrolled in preschool education (pré-escolar). Without prejudice to the enrollment schedule, children who turn three between January 1 and the end of the school year may be enrolled in preschool during the school year (as long as there are places available, after the waiting list has been determined). Thus, children can attend pre-school from the moment they reach the minimum age for pre-school education in Portugal (three years). Enrollment in the first grade of elementary school is compulsory for all children who turn six years old by September 15 of the current year. If a child turns six between September 16 and the end of the year, it is possible to indicate two levels of education (pré-escolar and primeiro ano do ensino básico) among the preferences in the enrollment application. This avoids situations in which the school has no places available.
How do you find out which school group (agrupamento de escolas) your address belongs to? The quickest way to find out is to contact the school closest to your home, which will be able to provide you with the necessary information. However, there is a municipal document that, among other things, delimits the coverage areas of each school - this is the educational charter (Carta Educativa). Each city council (Câmara Municipal) is responsible for drafting it, so the current version of this charter can be found on the website of your Câmara Municipal. On the website of my Câmara Municipal in Figueira da Foz it looks like this. Contrary to most people's expectations, the school related to the residential address is not always the closest to home. Although places are often limited, there is no obligation to choose the school of residence as your first option. It is only necessary that the school you wish to enroll your child in has a place available. The Instituto de Gestão Financeira da Educação (Institute for Financial Management of Education) provides a platform that you can consult to find all the institutions in the school network.
As I mentioned above, the so-called extension of enrollment is automatic except in the following cases:
- Transfer to another educational institution (transferência de estabelecimento);
- Transition to another cycle of education (middle or high school (transição de ciclo));
- change of the person responsible for the child's education (alteração do encarregado de educação) (it cannot be changed during the school year, except in duly justified cases);
- change of curriculum option (alteração de opção curricula).
How do I make a request to transfer to another school?
Since this is an extension of enrollment with a change of school, the request must be submitted by the third business day after the student's school situation has been determined (after a decision has been made at the current school). It is best to request an extension of enrollment online as well. Parents should forward the received confirmation file to the school the child attended the previous year, which in turn forwards the file to the new school. If parents are unable to apply for re-enrollment online, they can do so in person at the school their child attended in the previous school year.
Waiting for school enrollment. A child who has not been enrolled in any of the schools of his/her choice after applying the prioritization criteria specified in the current regulatory enrollment procedure continues to wait for confirmation on the Portal das Matrículas. In this case, the application for enrollment or its extension will be forwarded to one of the relevant departments of the DGEstE. If the situation is not resolved before the beginning of the school year, and since by law of the Portuguese Republic it is not allowed to leave a pupil without a school place, the parent must file a complaint with the DGEstE (Northern Region, Central Region, Lisbon and Tagus Valley, Alentejo and Algarve Region). The situation is different in the case of enrollment from a school abroad or from a Portuguese school with foreign programs. In this case, parents can also enroll online, but the enrollment request will be registered as "Awaiting placement with equivalency process". Enrollment will become final when the equivalency process provided for in Article 7 of Decree-Law No. 227/2005 of December 28 (Decreto-Lei n.º 227/2005, de 28 de de de dezembro) has been duly completed (all necessary documents from the previous school have been provided, in the format required by Portuguese law and translated into Portuguese).
What should you do if your child has special educational needs?
Pupils with special educational needs have the right to adapted teaching, personalized assessment and specialized support, among other things. When a child who has received early intervention transitions to elementary school, professionals and the family must work together to ensure this transition. All relevant documentation must be provided at enrollment, which varies from case to case. It is also possible that the child will be assessed by the school itself. In this case, the parents must ask the school to draw up an individualized education plan in order to benefit from support.
And now for the most common questions (which we didn't answer above), but to which Direção-Geral dos Estabelecimentos Escolares has answers:
- What legislation establishes the procedure for enrollment and renewal in public education? Regulatory Order No. 6/2018 of April 12 (Despacho Normativo n.º 6/2018, de 12 de abril), as amended by Regulatory Order No. 5/2020 of April 21 (Despacho Normativo n.º 5/2020, de 21 de abril) and Regulatory Order No. 10-B/2021 of April 14 (Despacho Normativo n. º 10-B/2021, de 14 de abril).º 10-B/2021, de 14 de abril), establishes the procedures for enrollment and renewal of enrollment, as well as the rules to be followed for the placement of children. Without prejudice to the provisions of Normative Order No. 10-B/2021 of April 14, the provisions of Order No. 4506-A/2023 of April 13 (Despacho n.º 4506-A/2023, de 13 de abril) shall apply.
- My child wants to attend an art education institution on an additional basis, how do I indicate this on the application form? If you wish to apply for enrollment or extension of enrollment in specialized art education on an additional basis, in step 4 of the electronic enrollment form at www.portaldasmatrículas.edu.gov.pt, after completing the previous year's data, when adding your preferences, you must answer affirmatively to the question "Do you want to enroll in specialized art education?" (Pretende inscrever-se no ensino artístico especializado), after which you will be asked to indicate the "Mode of Attendance" (Regime de Frequência), in which case you must indicate "Optional" (Regime Supletivo). Next, you must indicate the school your child intends to attend or is attending, the type of education or program, such as "General Basic Education" (Ensino Básico Geral). Finally, indicate the art education school where your child intends to take the specialized course. Under this system, students receive two types of education in parallel: general education and specialized art education in two schools.
- What do I need to do to obtain equivalence of school documents obtained abroad or from Portuguese schools with foreign systems? You should contact your school of residence in Portugal or your preferred school of enrollment to request equivalence in a duly completed application form provided by the school and bring the required original documents. For more information on the equivalency process, please see the website.
- Can parents of children from foreign schools apply for enrollment in a different year of schooling? According to Regulatory Order No. 6/2018, dated April 12, in its current version, they are given the opportunity to apply for enrollment in the year of study immediately following the one that corresponds to enrollment in the qualification obtained through equivalency, within the same cycle of study.
- Can I list public, private, cooperative or social schools among my application preferences at the same time? You may list any public, private or social school among the five preferences available to you. However, if you choose a private, cooperative or social school, you need to inform these institutions directly that you have registered your application online as well
- What if the school you want to enroll in is not displayed on the Choice Portal? In this case, you should contact the school itself. Only schools that are present in the school network with the appropriate level and type of education, have registered their offer of education in the Sistema Integrado de Gestão de Oferta (SIGO) and are visible in the Portal da Oferta Formativa (Portal da Oferta Formativa) will be displayed in the school selection window of the Enrollment Portal
- Can I enroll my child in school at my place of work instead of my place of residence? Yes, but then you will need to provide the address of your place of work (with proof) instead of your place of residence.
- If a child has siblings enrolled in school, does he/she have priority enrollment? Yes, but only siblings belonging to the same family (confirmation - the already mentioned document on family composition) can be considered for the purposes of the priority defined in articles 10, 11 and 12 of Regulatory Order No. 6/2018 of April 12 in its current version. It is worth noting that if a pupil registers to enter grade 1 and his brothers and in the same year go to grade 5 of another school, this sorting criterion will not be applied because they will not actually be in the same school (because they are different cycles of education).
- During the school year, can I apply for a change of study mode to home, individual or distance learning? Yes, in order to do so, you should read the contents of Decree-Law No. 70/2021 of August 3 (Decreto-Lei n.º 70/2021) and Ministerial Order No. 359/2019 of October 8 (Portaria n.º 359/2019, de 8 de outubro).
- When is the enrollment process for children finalized?
Lists of children whose parents have applied for enrollment or extended enrollment shall be compiled and distributed to each educational institution in accordance with the following timelines:
(a) Until the last working day of May in the case of enrollment in preschool education and in the 1st grade of the 1st cycle of basic education;
(b) By the 5th business day after the end of the prescribed filing period for students in grades 5, 7, 10, and 1st year of vocational education.
Lists of enrolled children are published:
(a) On the first working day of July in the case of pre-school education and grade 1 of the 1st cycle of basic education;
(b) On the first business day of August in the case of basic education and secondary education classes not listed above, indicating the grade in which each student has been admitted.
Well, we have covered everything that is legally stipulated in Portugal regarding the school enrollment and transfer process. But, as in all areas of life in Portugal, there are exceptions. Somewhere, they will not ask for a document on family composition, but will take your word for it. Somewhere (especially not in densely populated areas) calmly accept a child in school for a year without additional bureaucratic delays. Personally, I once went to the DGEstE department in Coimbra, where I was very helpful, and there were cases when they categorically refused to even listen. In general, as always, it all depends on your positive attitude, level of luck and coincidence. As always, I want to wish all adults good luck and patience, and children comfortably adapt to the new school! Let me remind you that our portal contains contacts of the best specialists in various spheres of life in Portugal: real estate agents, lawyer, cryptocurrency exchange specialist, from whom you can get detailed advice on your specific case. And if you are just curious to know more about life in Portugal, read our articles, there are already more than 500 of them! See you soon!
