Law 170 Italy: DSA, Dyslexia, and School Accommodations Explained

One of the most common mistakes expat families make in Italy is treating learning disorders and disabilities as the same legal category. They are not. If your child has dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, or dysorthographia, they are covered by a completely different law — Law 170/2010 — with different entitlements, a different plan, and different limitations.

Getting this wrong wastes months. Here is what Law 170 actually provides, what it does not provide, and how to secure the right accommodations for your child.

What Law 170 Covers

Law 170 of October 2010 officially recognizes four Specific Learning Disorders (Disturbi Specifici di Apprendimento, or DSA):

• Dyslexia (dislessia): difficulty with accurate and fluent reading
• Dysgraphia (disgrafia): difficulty with the quality of handwriting
• Dysorthographia (disortografia): difficulty with spelling and written language rules
• Dyscalculia (discalculia): difficulty with numerical calculations and mathematical procedures

These conditions are specifically defined as disorders that arise in the absence of neurological deficits, sensory impairments, or intellectual disabilities. DSA is a specific learning profile, not a disability under Law 104/1992.

This legal distinction is not a technicality. It completely changes what your child is entitled to receive in school.

The Critical Limitation: No Support Teacher for DSA

Students certified under Law 170 do not receive an insegnante di sostegno.

This surprises almost every expat family from the US, UK, or Australia. In those systems, a child with significant dyslexia might receive classroom aide support, small-group instruction, or resource room time as part of their plan. In Italy, Law 170 does not authorize any of those provisions.

What a DSA student receives is a PDP — a Piano Didattico Personalizzato (Personalized Teaching Plan) — which grants compensatory tools and dispensatory measures. This is the ceiling of what Law 170 provides.

If your child has a learning disorder and no co-occurring disability, spending months trying to get them a support teacher will not succeed. The path to a support teacher runs through Law 104/1992, which requires a different diagnosis and a different certification process entirely.

What the PDP Provides

The Piano Didattico Personalizzato (PDP) is a document written by the class council — all of the teachers who teach your child — that specifies the accommodations and modifications your child is entitled to in the classroom and on assessments.

The PDP is divided into two categories:

Compensatory tools (strumenti compensativi): Aids that allow the student to compensate for their specific deficit. Examples include:

• Text-to-speech software for reading
• Speech-to-text software for writing
• Calculators and formula sheets for mathematics
• Computer-typed work instead of handwriting
• Digital textbooks instead of paper textbooks
• Mind maps and concept maps for organizing information
• Bilingual dictionaries (important for expat children working in a second language)

Dispensatory measures (misure dispensative): Exemptions from specific tasks that would unfairly penalize the student due to their disorder, not their knowledge. Examples include:

• Exemption from reading aloud in class
• Exemption from copying from the board in timed situations
• Reduced homework volume (same learning objectives, less repetition)
• Oral exams substituted for written exams in some subjects
• Extra time on written assessments — typically 30% additional time

Both categories must be explicitly listed in the PDP. If a tool or exemption is not written into the PDP, teachers are not legally required to provide it during assessments or class activities.

How to Get DSA Certified in Italy

For a PDP to be legally binding, the DSA must be certified through an official Italian process. Foreign learning disorder diagnoses are useful clinical background, but they do not alone create a legal obligation for Italian schools.

The certification pathway for DSA:

1. A specialist recognized by Italy's National Health System (SSN) — typically a neuropsychologist, child psychiatrist, or specialist at a child neuropsychiatry unit (UONPIA at the ASL) — evaluates the child and issues a formal DSA diagnosis.
2. This report is submitted to the school principal, who convenes the class council to draft the PDP.
3. The PDP is reviewed and signed by the teachers, the parents, and in secondary school, the student.

Private diagnostic centers can issue valid DSA certifications if they are recognized by the regional health authority. Waiting times at public ASL centers for DSA evaluations can run to several months; private evaluations are typically faster but cost several hundred euros.

For expat children, a bilingual assessment is strongly recommended — many children from English-speaking backgrounds present as struggling with Italian when what they actually have is underlying dyslexia. A good Italian neuropsychologist will use assessment tools that account for bilingualism and second-language acquisition.

DSA and Bilingual Children: A Common Confusion

Italy's 2012 BES directive specifically addresses children who are struggling in school due to linguistic disadvantage — that is, children who are learning Italian as a second language. Schools can activate a temporary PDP for "linguistic disadvantage" without any medical diagnosis.

This provision exists precisely for newly arrived expat children. A child who is struggling academically because they do not yet speak Italian fluently can receive accommodations (bilingual dictionaries, simplified assessments, extra time) through this BES mechanism while their Italian improves.

The risk is that genuine learning disorders are masked by linguistic difficulties. A child with dyslexia who also speaks limited Italian can look like a child who simply needs language support. If academic struggles persist beyond one to two years of Italian immersion, families should pursue a formal DSA evaluation rather than assuming it is purely a language issue.

Persistent difficulty with reading in both Italian and the child's home language is a red flag that warrants assessment.

PDP vs. PEI: The Clearest Summary

This distinction trips up almost every family new to the Italian system:

A child can theoretically have both a PEI and DSA accommodations if they have a co-occurring disability and a learning disorder. In that case, the DSA accommodations are incorporated into the PEI.

Dyslexia-Specific Accommodations in Practice

The most effective PDP accommodations for dyslexic students: text-to-speech software for reading-heavy subjects (the school must provide digital textbooks if this is in the PDP); 30% additional time on written assessments and on the national Maturità exit exam; oral exams substituted for written exams in subjects where handwriting heavily penalizes the student; and exemption from spelling-based grading in foreign language subjects.

If individual teachers are not applying the PDP accommodations, reference the plan in writing and copy the school principal. Every teacher who teaches your child is legally bound by the PDP — it is not optional.

The Italy Special Education Blueprint includes a full section on Law 170, DSA certification, and PDP development — plus guidance on how to handle bilingual assessment, what to do when teachers don't follow the PDP, and how to manage the transition to high school and the national exit exams.

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