If your child doesn’t speak French yet, here’s the single most important thing to check before you pick a school: what language learning support does the school actually offer?
What to Look For: FLE and UPE2A
French language instruction for foreigners has a name: FLE (Français Langue Étrangère). The national program that teaches FLE to newly arrived students in French public schools is called UPE2A (Unité Pédagogique pour Élèves Allophones Arrivants).
Not every school offers this program, and private schools (including the public-private hybrid model “hors contrat” aren’t included in the public UPE2A program.
It’s more of a pain to enroll your kid from abroad in the public schools, you have to jump through the bureaucracy hoops. Whereas you can enroll them in a private school from abroad more easily. But an established UPE2A program is a huge asset in helping your child to transition in France, and in that way I think it’s a huge vote for the public schools.
How Enrollment Works: Elementary vs. Middle and High School
Elementary school
You enroll elementary-age children at the local mairie (town hall), which will usually refer your child to the nearest CASNAV office within the first few weeks of school for an assessment. CASNAV operates under the French Ministry of Education and welcomes foreign students, assessing and addressing their learning needs as they enter the public system.
Sometimes, if your child is young and there are teachers in the school comfortable with supporting foreign students, this referral may not even be necessary. But if your child is struggling, could use additional language support and hasn’t been automatically referred to CANAV, you can request it.
Even then, remember different schools will handle FLE differently. Some, you child might just have an hour or two a week. Others might place a non-French speaking child in FLE up to 50% of the time initially. But for most elementary age kids, they’ll likely be communicating fairly well after six months of immersion.
That will feel like FOREVER when it’s happening.
It will likely be an uncomfortable for everyone (I hope not, but you should expect it to be). But six months of feeling a bit out of sorts to speak a second language for the rest of your life, at least to me, feels like a pretty solid trade.
Middle or high school
For older kids, entering the public system must start with an appointment at the CASNAV office in your area. They’ll test your child in English to confirm their academic level (bring school records if you can), then, if your child needs help learning French, they’ll assign them to an area school with a UPE2A program.
That can mean your child doesn’t attend the closest school.
Juliana’s first year, CASNAV assigned her to the middle school across the bridge in Porte Sainte Foy instead of the closer school in Sainte Foy La Grande simply because it had an established FLE program. In rural areas, a traveling teacher sometimes visits a few schools each week; in small communes, there may be no FLE support at all.
Here’s something I think is a bit unexpected for a lot of Americans. The school Juliana went to that first year is not well rated for passing the end of middle school test, the Brevet. It’s NOT a well off area socio-economically. Because there are so many other immigrant kids, they have a really established UPE2A program, which was exactly what our immigrant kid needed.
Sometimes the “best” school for your child looks different in France than the criteria you would have had in the U.S.
Fill the Gap Yourself
Consider arranging outside tutoring for your child during their first year. We did this with Juliana in her second year, when her FLE support dropped to just one hour a week even as academic expectations rose. Her tutor, Benoit, worked with her once a week so she could ask about anything in her homework that she — and we — couldn’t figure out alone.
Too many parents rely entirely on the school to manage this transition, and that’s not always enough.
A Note on Private Schools
As I mentioned above, it’s often easier to enroll in a private school from abroad, since it requires no government processing. But with a private school, it’s up to you to make sure it has a plan to support your child’s language transition. Some have excellent FLE programs; some offer no language support at all.
Many French private schools are hors contrat, meaning they teach the public school curriculum but also offer Catholic programming or other distinct features, with reasonable tuition (usually around €200–400 per month). If you’re considering one of these schools, ask specifically what FLE support they offer beyond the regular curriculum even if the school seems wonderful otherwise.
A Caution on International Schools
Some international schools teach in English and offer French only as a second-language class, much like a French class in a U.S. middle or high school. Frankly, unless you plan to return to the US soon or your child is near graduation and continuing their studies in English, this isn’t a great long term path.
Many parents see them as a “soft landing,” but in our opinion, this is like moving your child to a French-speaking country and then locking them in an English-speaking bubble.
They won’t really learn French in a primarily English environment, which makes it harder to build friendships in your neighborhood and join activities they enjoy. Every year of delaying full immersion makes it harder, as the academics get more demanding as kids get older.
Don’t rob them of the chance to learn the language as young as possible!
At minimum, if you’re considering an international school and planning to stay in France long term, look for a fully bilingual one with written guidelines on the how much of the curriculum is in each language.
It Will Be Hard. It Will Be Worth It
Yes, the transition to France will likely be hard. Your child probably won’t make as much academic progress that first year while they focus on learning the language.
But almost no one remembers, or ever uses, specific facts from history or physics class later in life, while speaking a second language can open all kinds of doors.
The first six months, Juliana cried with some regularity. It was hard for her, and hard for us to watch how challenging each week was. But here we are four years later. None of us gave up. She speaks French with almost no accent and just got accepted to one of the best public high schools in Bordeaux. Both of those things will open more doors for her too.
So prepare yourself to be patient and persist through the difficulty of watching your child do something difficult. Plan to ask for and arrange outside support for your child if you can. Advocate for elementary-age kids to be assessed by CASNAV if it doesn’t happen automatically and they’re struggling. And if you choose a private school, make sure there’s a plan for FLE.
You can do this. It’s not easy, but you’re giving your child something that can only be taught by experience: the confidence that they can meet and overcome challenges in life.
Baguettes and Butter 4eva, Raina ❤️
