Enrolling your kids in an Alicante public school: 2026 guide

There is a moment in a family relocation that weighs more than the boxes: the day you walk your child, backpack on the shoulder and a brand-new name, up to the door of a Spanish school for the first time. If the move is to Alicante, that day has a date. And the date starts now.

The system, on one page

Spain runs compulsory education between the ages of 6 and 16. Before that there is Infant Education, voluntary, in two cycles: 0 to 3 years in nurseries, 3 to 6 years in primary schools. Primary covers 6 to 12, ESO covers 12 to 16, and Bachillerato closes the cycle to 18. Three kinds of centres coexist under different rules: public, fully state-funded with civil-servant teachers; concertado, privately managed but mostly publicly funded; and private, billed entirely to families. Roughly a quarter of Spanish pupils attend a concertado. Most of them go to a public school.

Dates that matter for 2026/27

The regional Education Department (Conselleria d'Educació, Cultura i Universitats) publishes each year the admission calendar and instructions. For 2026/27 they look like this:

• Infant and Primary: applications between 7 and 18 May. Provisional lists on 4 June, final lists on 18 June. Online enrolment from 18 to 29 June, in person from 18 June to 2 July.
• ESO: applications between 21 May and 1 June. Provisional lists on 15 June, final on 2 July. Online enrolment from 2 to 7 July, in person from 2 to 8 July.
• Bachillerato: applications between 21 May and 1 June. Provisional on 1 July, final on 9 July. Online enrolment from 9 to 14 July, in person from 9 to 15 July.
• Special Education: in-person applications from 7 to 18 May.

One single application per stage, with up to twenty schools listed in order of preference. If you arrive in Alicante in July, August or September, you do not enter through this calendar: you go through the so-called late admission, handled by the territorial Education Inspectorate, which assigns a place at the centre with vacancies closest to your home. It is legal, it is fast and it does not always give you the school you wanted.

ADMINOVA, the single portal

Since the 2024/25 year, the whole process runs through adminova.gva.es. It is the regional government's site for Infant, Primary, ESO, Bachillerato, vocational training, official language schools and arts education. It works with a telematic admission key, a digital certificate or Cl@ve, and you can also generate an identifier from the portal itself in a few minutes if you have none of the above. One application, one number, one path for the whole family.

Single district: your zone is the whole city

Decreto 48/2024, of 23 April, restored the single-district model in the Valencian Community. Any public or concertado school in Alicante now has the entire municipality as its catchment area. Before, closed districts tied families to a small radius around home; now you can apply to any centre in the city. Proximity still scores points, but it no longer excludes.

The scoring system, in four lines

When there are more applications than places, points decide. Weights shift with each decree, but the main criteria are always the same:

• Siblings at the school: 15 points per sibling already enrolled in the current year.
• Proximity to home or workplace, scaled by distance.
• Family income, measured against the annual IPREM (fourteen-month basis, previous tax year), up to 7 points for the lowest brackets. Beneficiaries of the Renta Valenciana de Inclusión also score 7 points.
• Large family, single-parent household, disability of the pupil or a relative, victim status, elite athletes or pupils combining schooling with music or dance: each category with its own table.
• Centre staff: 7 points if a parent or legal guardian is on the school's payroll.

The scoring system kicks in only when demand exceeds places. In most neighbourhood public schools there is no competition: if you list yours as first choice, you usually get in.

The paperwork, especially if you come from abroad

To enrol a minor in a Spanish public school you need proof of identity and parentage. Passport, NIE or DNI for the child; passport or DNI for the parents; family book or birth certificate to prove the relationship. The vaccination booklet is recommended, not mandatory, and if you bring it from abroad, better translated. The certificado de empadronamiento in Alicante is issued free by the Ayuntamiento once you have a rental or purchase contract. Lacking legal residence does not block enrolment: the Spanish Constitution recognises the right to education between 6 and 16 to any minor on Spanish soil, papers or no papers. If the documents come in another language, you need a sworn translation by a translator authorised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation.

Three languages in class

The Valencian Community is bilingual. Ley 4/2018, of 21 February, regulates plurilingualism and forces every publicly funded centre to apply the Plurilingual and Intercultural Education Programme. Each school drafts its Vehicular Languages Programme, splitting the curriculum between Valencian, Castilian and English. The mix changes from school to school: some run half the timetable in Valencian, others mostly in Castilian, others with strong English content through conversation assistants. Always ask for the exact percentage at the year your child is entering, and for the programme's continuity in the years that follow. For 2025/26 the Conselleria has also launched the Puente de Lenguas programme, school exchanges aimed at reinforcing Valencian across centres with different sociolinguistic realities.

Where to look in Alicante

Single district lets you, on paper, apply to any school. In practice, proximity still rules. The northern coastal areas (Cabo de la Huerta, Albufereta, Playa de San Juan) gather seven public schools and three secondary institutes for a population growing faster than the supply: there are prefabricated classrooms, the so-called barracones, and parents' platforms have been demanding new infrastructure since 2022. The new CEIP de La Almadraba, already awarded, will ease the area in the coming years. In Playa de San Juan, the CEIP La Condomina runs at avenida de Países Escandinavos. In Albufereta, the CEIP La Albufereta sits on calle Zeus, 3. In Cabo de las Huertas, IES Cabo de las Huertas and IES Playa de San Juan absorb most of the secondary load. In the centre and in established neighbourhoods like Benalúa, Pla del Bon Repós, Carolinas or Garbinet, supply is steadier and demand pressure is lower. The Ayuntamiento de Alicante's electronic office publishes the official maps of centres and influence areas every year.

After the application

Provisional lists open a short window for appeals. Final lists confirm the place. Then comes enrolment, done at the school itself: you bring original documents, choose whether or not you want school dining (not compulsory, with means-tested subsidies in many centres), transport if you live far away, optional second foreign language or music, permission for school trips. The first day of the 2026/27 year falls in early September, the exact date to be confirmed in the Conselleria's official school calendar.

A new backpack

Walking a child to their first school in a different country is one of those moments you rewind for years. Here, in Alicante, that day starts with low sunlight, a new palm tree in the playground and names in another language. The rest gets learned in weeks. What matters is reaching the door knowing the paperwork is done, that the school was assigned because you asked for that one and no other, and that the calendar got you a place on time.

At ESYS VIP we help families relocating to the Costa Blanca find a home in areas with good access to schools. If you would rather start with the house, explore our properties. If you prefer to ask first, contact us.