Thanks to a new decree, families whose children are in school, and who meet certain conditions, will be able to obtain this financial assistance without going through the laborious “administrative procedures” stage.
People who reside in France or in the DROM-COM can attest to this: when it comes to applying for financial assistance from state organizations, the procedures are often long and tedious. In some cases, it can even be a real journey to undertake as there are so many papers to provide or deadlines to respect. Among all the aid that exists in France, one in particular has for many years given families with children a hard time: the college and high school scholarship.
This aid, granted in secondary schools for middle and high school students, allows eligible parents to finance expenses related to their child’s education each term. Whether it is the purchase of school supplies or textbooks for example. As you will have understood, this is aimed at families meeting specific criteria. In general, the college or high school scholarship is paid according to the parents’ income and the number of dependent children in the household. Of course, in either case, there are resource ceilings that must not be exceeded in order to be eligible.
As for the procedures, until now, families had to do them on their own. The steps to achieve this were more or less different depending on whether the child is educated in a public or private school or if he is registered with the CNED. Parents had to make the request online on the Educonnect portal, with specific identifiers, and also complete a form, attaching supporting documents before sending it to the secretariat of the registration establishment. And this, while respecting the campaign calendar established by the authorities. Result: some parents applied too late or even did not receive the aid, even though they were eligible for it. But now it’s ancient history.
Indeed, according to a recent decree, published on April 4, 2024 in the Official Journal, from the start of the 2024-2025 school year, eligibility for the college and high school scholarship will be automatically examined by the administrations. Families will no longer have to do a whole bunch of administrative procedures. Parents will just need to provide some information and consent. “to collect the necessary data from the tax administration” so that “consent to the automatic examination of eligibility for the national college scholarship constitutes a scholarship application”, indicates the text of the law. The same goes for the national high school scholarship. Clearly, administrations will in the future be responsible for retrieving information from households and cross-referencing it with data from the Ministry of Public Accounts to verify their eligibility. One less burden for parents!