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IMMIGRATION

Denying school lunch subsidies to immigrant children is discrimination, Italian court rules

A judge has ordered the northern Italian city of Lodi to scrap new rules that made it harder for the children of foreign parents to qualify for subsidised school meals.

Published: 14 December 2018 13:54 CET
Denying school lunch subsidies to immigrant children is discrimination, Italian court rules
Lunch at an elementary school in Rome. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP

The court of Milan on Thursday ruled that requiring parents from outside the EU to provide proof of their assets both in Italy and their birth countries in order to get help paying for the school canteen and other services constituted “direct discrimination”.

Instead, the judge said, non-European families should be able to access subsidies on the same terms as Italian or EU citizens – i.e., by demonstrating their income in Italy alone.

“It's a victory for legality and good sense,” commented Alberto Guariso and Livio Neri, two lawyers who mounted the legal challenge on behalf of child protection associations and charities.

READ ALSO: Donors step in after Italian city denies school lunch subsidies to children of immigrants


Photo: Charly Triballeau/AFP

The requirements, which Lodi's right-wing mayor introduced at the start of the school year, were widely criticised for effectively excluding immigrant children. Many people pointed out that expecting people to obtain official documents from distant countries – countries that in the cases of refugees are at war or in crisis – then to get them translated and notarised by the Italian consulate there was unrealistic.

Parents who couldn't produce the documentation saw the cost of sending their children to school triple. They were automatically charged the highest rate for school lunches, working out at around €5 per meal rather than the lower subsidised rate that is standard for Italian children, while kids who opted to take a packed lunch instead were forced to eat separately from their classmates.

The same rules applied to creches and school buses, which ended up costing some foreign parents €210 per quarter.

Their plight came to national attention via a widely watched report on TV show Piazza Pulita, which spoke movingly to some of the children affected.

A crowdfunding appeal raised more than €60,000 within 48 hours, covering the costs of nearly 300 children to continue accessing school services while associations prepared to take the case to court.

In his ruling, Judge Nicola Di Plotti criticised the “discriminatory conduct” of Lodi's city council, led by Mayor Sara Casanova of the anti-immigration League party.

The council's actions attracted criticism from the ministry of education, Italy's child welfare authority and several members of parliament. Even the head of Casanova's party, Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, qualified his support for her policy by saying that Lodi's council should accept immigrant families' declarations of means “on good faith” alone.

The city council is currently deciding whether to appeal the court's ruling against, according to La Repubblica. Its decision is expected in the coming days.

Meanwhile another northern Italian council enacted similar measures without challenge: the region of Veneto now requires non-EU parents to certify their assets abroad in order to qualify for a discount on schoolbooks.

READ ALSO: 

SCHOOLS

Back to school in Italy: how much will it cost, and how can you save money?

With children in Italy returning to school in September, families have begun stocking up on essential supplies. But new figures reveal they may have to shell out more this year.

Published: 1 September 2022 13:14 CEST
Updated: 27 August 2024 08:11 CEST
Back to school in Italy: how much will it cost, and how can you save money?

As the summer holidays draw to a close, kids in Italy are preparing to file back into the classroom for the start of the 2024/2025 school year.

This year, back-to-school dates will range from September 5th to September 16th, with children in the northern Bolzano province set to be the first back in front of the blackboard.

As kids around the country enjoy the last days of their summer break, families have already started the annual rush to stock up on school essentials. 

But the purchase of supplies and textbooks may deal many households a harder blow this year.

According to estimates from Italian consumer association Codacons, school supplies (backpacks, notebooks, pencil cases, stationery, etc.) may cost up to 15 percent more compared to last year, while textbooks will be nearly five percent pricier on average against 2023.

So how much should Italian families prepare to shell out?

According to Codacons, expenses for school supplies alone may amount to a whopping 600 euros per schoolchild. 

As usual, the most expensive item on the back-to-school list is the backpack, with the price of some brand-name articles exceeding 200 euros.

READ ALSO: OPINION: Italian schools need to make parents’ lives easier, not harder

But significant expenses are also required for pencil cases or pouches (some items may go for as much as 60 or 70 euros), school diaries (up to 35 euros for the most sought-after brands) and technical items (i.e., set squares and triangles, compasses, goniometers, etc.).

On top of school supplies, most families will also have to pay for textbooks. 

While elementary school textbooks are supplied free of charge across the country, costs for middle school (scuola media) and high school (scuola superiore) textbooks generally range between 300 and 700 euros, with prices varying depending on the year and school.

All in all then, Codacons estimates that the purchase of school supplies and textbooks may set Italian families back some 1,300 euros per schoolchild this year. 

READ ALSO: OPINION: Are Italy’s international schools really ‘international’?

But as price hikes give rise to justified concern among parents, consumer groups have already offered families some useful advice on how to save up on both supplies and textbooks.

School supplies in Italy

Italian consumer groups have advised families to avoid branded items when it comes to purchasing school supplies. Photo by OLI SCARFF / AFP

How to save money on school supplies

  • Avoid branded items. Children are easily influenced by TV and/or online ads and might push to get the most popular and fashionable articles on the market. However, off-brand items generally have the same features and durability as their more well-known counterparts and might go for 40 percent less.
  • Buy from a local supermarket rather than a stationery shop. At this time of the year, many supermarket chains offer very favourable deals on school kits, with prices being sometimes 30 percent lower than in specialist shops.
  • Don’t buy everything at once. Any item that is not immediately necessary can be bought at a later stage.
  • Wait for teachers’ guidelines, especially when it comes to buying material for art or geometry classes. Knowing exactly what items are required will save you from spending money on wrong or unnecessary articles.

How to save money on textbooks

  • Buy second-hand textbooks. Purchasing libri usati might allow you to save up to 50 percent on school books. However, it’s usually best to check the state of the items – especially their exercise pages – prior to buying. Also, keep in mind that past editions might no longer be accepted.
  • Shop online or in supermarkets. Some supermarkets and online marketplaces sell textbooks at favourable prices, with discounts usually ranging between 10 and 20 percent.
  • Buy digital textbooks. Again, not all schools allow this but in some institutes families have the option to buy the required set of textbooks in digital form. Children can then access the books via a pc, tablet or e-reader.
  • Loan textbooks directly from the school. Not all institutes do this but some allow for various forms of comodato d’uso whereby families can loan textbooks for the entire length of the school year and then return them when classes end in June.
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