School and preschool in Brazil — how to enroll a child

What the law guarantees

Constituição, art. 208, I: the state is obliged to ensure basic education, compulsory and free, from age 4 to 17, including for those who did not receive it at the proper age.

ECA, art. 53 — children and adolescents have the right to education, including:

• equal conditions for access to and staying in school (I);
• the right to be respected by educators (II);
• the right to challenge evaluation criteria (III);
• access to a free public school near the place of residence (V).

ECA, art. 55: "Parents or guardians are obliged to enroll their children or dependents in the regular education system."

Newcomers often do not know this rule: a school-aged child's absence from school is a violation, which schools report to the Conselho Tutelar (art. 56).

How the system is structured

Basis — art. 21 and 30 of Law 9.394/1996; ensino fundamental is compulsory and free in public schools from age 6 (art. 32).

School year: minimum 800 hours, distributed over at least 200 school days, not counting time for final exams (art. 24, I). The year runs roughly from February to December, with vacations in July — that is, the calendar is shifted relative to the northern hemisphere, and a child arriving in August enters in the middle of the year.

Types of schools

• Municipal — run by the city, usually educação infantil and ensino fundamental.
• Estadual — state school, more often ensino médio.
• Particular — private, paid, including bilingual and international.

Public schools are free. Enrollment in them is tied to the place of residence: the right under the ECA is formulated as access to a school near home, so proof of address is a key document.

Documents and practicalities

What is usually required at enrollment: birth certificate or other identity document of the child, proof of address, vaccination card, records of previous schooling.

"Usually required" does not mean "no enrollment without it". For migrant, refugee and stateless children Resolução CNE/CEB nº 1 of 13 Nov 2020 explicitly lists as not being an obstacle to enrollment: absence of a sworn translation, absence of identity documents of the country of origin, absence of RNM and even irregular migratory status. If documents on the child's prior schooling are missing, the child must be assessed and placed in a class according to development and age, and the assessment is conducted in their native language. The rule and the procedure for Florianópolis: Schools and daycares in Florianópolis — where to enroll a child.

Two points specific to a newcomer family:

1. Foreign education documents are legalized and translated — apostille plus sworn translation, see Legalization of foreign documents — apostille and sworn translation (in Russian). This is necessary for recognition of the completed education and equivalence, but not as a condition to get into school: enrollment cannot be postponed for this.
2. A child born in Brazil is Brazilian, and the question of their documents is resolved separately, see Birth of a child in Brazil — registration, citizenship, documents.

Sources

1. T1Constitution of Brazil — compulsory and free basic education from 4 to 17 years oldplanalto.gov.br · primary source
2. T1Lei nº 8.069/1990 (ECA) — right to a school near home and obligation of parents to enroll the childplanalto.gov.br · primary source
3. T1Lei nº 9.394/1996 (LDB) — structure of education and the academic yearplanalto.gov.br · primary source

T1 — primary: law, agency site, price list. T2 — secondary: press, specialist sites. T3 — other.