Special Education in France: What Expat Families Need to Know

Your child had an IEP in the US. Or an EHCP in the UK. Or a Learning Support Plan in Australia. You move to France, walk into a school, and hand over the folder. The response is polite but firm: these documents carry no legal weight here.

Welcome to the French special education system — medically driven, heavily bureaucratic, and structurally unlike anything most Anglo-Saxon expat families have encountered before. This guide explains how it actually works, what the key differences are from systems you may know, and what steps you need to take to get your child the support they're legally entitled to.

The Fundamental Difference: School-Led vs. State-Led

In the US, UK, and Australia, the school is usually the engine of special education. A teacher flags a concern, the school's learning support team assesses the child, and an IEP or EHCP is drafted — all within the school environment. Support resources are allocated through the school's own budget and staffing.

France works entirely differently. The school cannot independently diagnose a disability, allocate a dedicated classroom aide, or grant substantial accommodations. Instead, all of this runs through a government agency called the MDPH — the Maison Départementale des Personnes Handicapées (Departmental House for Disabled Persons). There is one MDPH office per département (France has 101), and every disability-related request for school support must go through it.

This single structural fact explains most of the frustration expat families experience. You can't simply ask the school to "get things sorted." The school is a delivery mechanism for support that the MDPH has already approved and funded. Without an MDPH decision in hand, the school's hands are largely tied.

The 520,000-Student Reality

France is not ignoring disability in schools. As of the 2024–2025 academic year, the Ministry of Education reports 520,600 students with disabilities are educated in mainstream classrooms. More than 140,000 Accompagnants d'Élèves en Situation de Handicap (AESH) — classroom support assistants — are deployed across the country. A further 72,000 students are in ULIS classes: specialized small-group units housed inside mainstream schools.

The problem is not intent — it is execution. Processing times for MDPH applications routinely stretch to 6–18 months. AESH shortages mean children can receive an official approval notification but still have no assistant in the classroom. And all of this is conducted in dense, formal French that most newly arrived expat families cannot navigate alone.

The Key Players and What They Do

Understanding these terms will save you enormous confusion at school meetings:

MDPH — the government agency that evaluates all disability-related requests and allocates resources. Your starting point for everything.

CDAPH — the decision-making committee within the MDPH. They issue the official notification granting or denying support.

PPS (Projet Personnalisé de Scolarisation) — the individualized school plan, roughly equivalent to an IEP or EHCP. It can only be issued for students with a recognized MDPH disability status. Only a PPS can legally mandate an AESH classroom aide.

AESH — the classroom support assistant. There are three types: individual (dedicated to one child), mutualized (shared across several students), and collective (attached to a ULIS class rather than an individual).

ESS (Équipe de Suivi de Scolarisation) — the annual review meeting where the school, parents, and specialists assess the child's progress under their PPS. The findings update the MDPH file and drive renewals.

Enseignant Référent (ERSEH) — a specialized teacher who acts as your primary liaison between the family, school, healthcare providers, and the MDPH. They chair ESS meetings and monitor PPS implementation.

What About Lighter-Touch Plans?

Not every child who needs school support requires an MDPH application. France has a tiered system of internal school plans that can be activated faster:

• PAP (Plan d'Accompagnement Personnalisé) — for students with dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD, or other "Troubles DYS." Requires validation by the school doctor but bypasses the MDPH entirely. Good for pedagogical accommodations; cannot assign an AESH.
• PAI (Projet d'Accueil Individualisé) — for students with chronic health conditions (severe allergies, asthma, epilepsy, diabetes). Covers medication protocols and dietary adjustments.
• PPRE (Programme Personnalisé de Réussite Éducative) — a temporary academic catch-up plan initiated by the school for short-term difficulties.

If your child needs a full-time classroom aide or a specialized class placement (ULIS), you need the MDPH route. If they have dyslexia and need adapted fonts and extra time, a PAP from the school doctor may be enough — and faster.

Your Foreign Documents Are Evidence, Not Entitlement

A US IEP, British EHCP, or Australian Learning Support Plan has no binding legal force in French schools. However, these documents are valuable diagnostic evidence. The right process is:

1. Have key documents translated by a traducteur assermenté (a sworn, court-certified translator).
2. Present the translated documents to a French médecin traitant (GP) or specialist.
3. The French doctor uses this history to complete the mandatory French medical certificate (Cerfa 15695-01), which is the legal key that unlocks the MDPH dossier.

Trying to submit English-language documents directly to the MDPH will result in immediate rejection.

Where International Schools Complicate Things

Many expat families choose hors contrat (private, non-state-funded) international schools — the American School of Paris, the British School of Paris, and others. These schools are not bound by the state's inclusive education laws. They are not obligated to accept students with disabilities, implement CDAPH decisions, or allow state-funded AESH staff on campus.

If your child attends a hors contrat school and needs 1-on-1 support, the family must hire and pay for that assistant privately. Some families use the MDPH process to understand their rights and funding eligibility, but the school itself operates outside the state system.

Public schools and sous contrat private schools are legally required to comply with CDAPH decisions.

Starting the Process

If you've just arrived in France and your child has existing SEN documentation:

1. Register with the local MDPH as soon as possible — the clock on waiting times starts from submission.
2. Find a French GP and relevant specialists. The MDPH requires a medical certificate dated within six months of application.
3. Contact your local ERSEH through the DSDEN (Direction des Services Départementaux de l'Éducation Nationale). They can help you understand what your child is entitled to before the MDPH decision arrives.
4. Ask the school whether a PAP or PAI might bridge the gap while the MDPH processes your full dossier.

The France Special Education Blueprint walks through each step of this process in detail — from assembling your MDPH dossier to preparing for ESS meetings to enforcing an AESH assignment that isn't being honored. Get the complete guide here.

The Realistic Timeline

There is no quick route through the MDPH. The legal maximum processing time is four months from the date the completed dossier is acknowledged, but in practice, families in Paris and other high-demand areas frequently wait 12–18 months. A dossier returned for missing documents resets that clock entirely.

Starting early, submitting a complete and well-written dossier the first time, and maintaining a paper trail with your ERSEH are the most effective strategies for avoiding delays.

France's inclusive education system offers real legal protections for children with disabilities. Getting to those protections requires navigating a formal administrative process that most expat families have never encountered before — but once you understand how the pieces fit together, it becomes manageable.

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