School, electronic register only with spid: children will not be able to have it on their phones until middle school

Between the folds of the latest simplification law lurks a novelty that will change the daily lives of more than ten million students, teachers and parents. We are talking about the obligation to access with Spid or electronic identity card, instead of with simple credentials, the electronic register, i.e. the platform that, from the 2012/13 school year, teachers must use to manage teaching activities and families to monitor life between the desks of their children.

The rule is clear. Article 51(8) of Law 182/2025 (which came into force on 18 December last year, ed.) states, on the one hand, that 'online registers can be accessed through the public system for managing the digital identity of citizens and businesses (Spid) or the electronic identity card (Cie)' and, on the other, that 'in the first cycle of education, electronic communications can be accessed by the parents of pupils or those exercising parental responsibility'. However, it does not state from when, nor does it delegate to a later measure the task of implementing it.

According to some ministerial sources, its introduction will be gradual. Moreover," they point out from Viale Trastevere, "the obligation to access with Spid or Cie was already highlighted in a circular of the MIM last April, which referred to Article 64 of the Digital Administration Code on the Public System for the management of digital identities and methods of access to services provided online by public administrations.

In short, the new legislative intervention only makes this explicit. While waiting for the indications that will come from the centre, some educational institutions are already moving. For example, as of 1 September, both teachers and Ata staff and families (at primary and middle schools) or pupils (at high schools) will be required to have a Cie or Spid if they wish to access the electronic register. In fact, with the full implementation of the new rules, it is to be expected that traditional credentials (username and password) will be disabled; the same will happen to any 'student' accounts, since pupils up to middle school will no longer be able to access the electronic register directly to consult grades, absences or communications.

On this occasion, the same institutes are also reminding teachers that throughout the first cycle of education they already have to rely exclusively on the dear old paper diary for noting down homework. Hence the call for teachers to ensure that this is done in line with a ministerial circular of July 2024.