Safeguarding international schools in Italy: country guide

Presidential Decree 389/1994 sets the rules for foreign schools in Italy. It names the education ministry, today called the Ministry of Education and Merit.

Under that decree, owners from outside the EU need a government authorisation to run a school. EU owners file a notice that the activity is starting, and the ministry checks it within 60 days.

Non-state schools that follow the Italian general education system can be recognised as paritaria schools under Law 62/2000, which gives their qualifications Italian legal value. Under the 1994 decree, certificates from foreign schools in Italy do not have that value.

Ask your regional school office (ufficio scolastico regionale) which route applies, who supervises your school and which procedure is current.

Accreditation is separate from state authorisation. International schools often hold memberships or accreditation from bodies such as the Council of International Schools (CIS), the Middle States Association (MSA) and the International Baccalaureate (IB). Each body sets its own child protection standards.

British-curriculum schools may belong to the Council of British International Schools (COBIS) and be inspected under the British Schools Overseas (BSO) scheme. Read about COBIS and BSO standards.

Italy has no single child protection act for schools. The texts reviewed for this guide do not name a DSL. Duties sit in several laws.

Italy ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child by Law 176/1991. The age of majority is 18 under Article 2 of the Civil Code.

Law 71/2017, changed by Law 70/2024 from 14 June 2024, covers bullying and cyberbullying. Each school must adopt an internal code, set up a monitoring group and name a lead teacher. The law says each school, so ask counsel if a private international school is bound.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Confirm the current law with local counsel and the relevant authority.

Article 331 of the Code of Criminal Procedure sets the main rule. Public officials and people in charge of a public service must report a crime they learn of through their work. The rule covers crimes that can be prosecuted without the victim's complaint.

The report is made in writing and goes without delay to the public prosecutor or a judicial police officer. Failing to report can be an offence for those groups (Penal Code, Articles 361 and 362).

A second rule covers children in a situation of abandonment, which means they lack moral and material care from parents or relatives. Under Article 9 of Law 184/1983, the same groups must tell the juvenile court prosecutor as soon as possible. Anyone else may also report to the public authority.

In an emergency, the public authority can place a child in a safe place if the child is abandoned or faces serious harm in the family (Civil Code, Article 403). It must tell the juvenile prosecutor at once and send the file within 24 hours.

Whether these duties cover your staff depends on your school's legal status, so ask counsel. If the duty is personal, telling the DSL may not satisfy it alone.

A cautious policy tells every adult to go to the DSL the same day. It says the DSL decides the outside report with counsel, who can check that wording against these duties. Mandatory reporting laws for international schools covers the wider picture.

If a child is in immediate danger, call 112 first. Then follow your school's child protection procedure and tell your DSL the same day. Put these numbers where staff and students can see them.

Numbers last checked on 19 October 2026. Check them again before you print them.

• 112: the EU emergency number, free from fixed and mobile phones. The European Commission says it connects you to the police, an ambulance or the fire brigade. Ask your local authority how it is routed in your region.
• 114: Emergenza Infanzia, a free child emergency line, open all day, every day. The government page calls it multilingual.
• 19696: the Telefono Azzurro helpline, free, for children, teenagers and adults. Child Helpline International lists it as open 24 hours, every day, in Italian.
• Police and the juvenile prosecutor: the bodies that receive formal reports. Ask counsel for your local contacts.
• Local social services: the number depends on your town, so look it up and write it into your policy.
• Your DSL: tell them the same day, every time.

Accreditation standards, including those of the International Task Force on Child Protection (ITFCP), ask adults to notice, record and pass on concerns. Italian law places duties on individuals and state bodies, and it does not name a DSL.

Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) is guidance for schools in England and has no legal force in Italy. Many schools model their policy on it, which works if the policy also names the Italian duties. See which parts of KCSIE travel abroad.

Write one page that names the DSL, the deputy and the steps, and add the Italian bodies in both languages. Have counsel check it once. Settle these three gaps first.

• Who receives the report: English guidance points to children's social care, while Italian law names prosecutors and police.
• Whose duty it is: the Italian duty may sit with each adult, so a DSL-only route may not cover it.
• The threshold: the bullying law speaks of repeated acts. Your policy can ask staff to report the first incident.

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies in Italy. Italy adds the Personal Data Protection Code (Legislative Decree 196/2003), updated in 2018 to fit GDPR. The regulator is the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali.

Safeguarding files often hold health data or details of a child's sex life. GDPR Article 9 treats these as special categories with strict conditions. Data on criminal convictions may be processed only under official control or where EU or national law allows it (Article 10).

A family can refuse or withdraw consent, so it is often a weak basis for a safeguarding record. Ask counsel which legal basis fits each type of record.

The texts reviewed for this guide set no general rule that records must stay in Italy. GDPR does limit transfers to countries outside the EU and the wider European Economic Area (Chapter V). Sending records to a head office, cloud host or software supplier abroad counts as a transfer.

Ask each supplier where the data sits, who can read it and what happens when the contract ends.

Calls to the police and prosecutors will happen in Italian. Name a confident Italian speaker on the safeguarding team, and post the helplines in Italian and in your families' languages.

Two Italian words matter. A denuncia is a formal criminal report, and a segnalazione is a report to a public authority. Tell families early what staff must pass on, and that no adult can promise a child secrecy.

The Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children says Italy has not fully banned corporal punishment in law. A 1996 Supreme Court ruling rejected violence in child-rearing, and the Penal Code punishes misuse of correction (Article 571).

The government says it has been unlawful in schools since 1928, but the report found no law that says so. Your policy can ban physical punishment by any adult, in every setting. The report was last updated in July 2020, so ask counsel for the current position.

Italian law tells an employer to request a criminal record certificate for anyone it plans to hire for work with direct, regular contact with children. The rule is in Article 25-bis of Presidential Decree 313/2002 and also covers organised voluntary work. The check looks for convictions for listed child sexual offences or a ban on working with children.

An employer that skips the check can face an administrative fine (Legislative Decree 39/2014). The certificate may not show records from other countries, so add certificates from every country where staff lived or worked. Read about safer recruitment in international schools.

Use this list in your first month.

• Ask counsel if your staff count as public officials or people in a public service.
• Write one reporting route in Italian and English, and have counsel check it.
• Put 112, 114 and 19696 on one page where staff and students can see it.
• Name the lead teacher for bullying and cyberbullying, and check your internal code under Law 71/2017.
• Ask your regional school office which body supervises your school.
• Check that every hire with child contact has a criminal record certificate on file.
• Ask each supplier where safeguarding data is stored and which GDPR transfer tool applies.