Getting School Social Support (Ação Social Escolar) in Portugal

Last verified: October 2026.

Who this is for

• Parents with a child in a public preschool or school in mainland Portugal.
• Families whose child attends a private school with a state contract (contrato de associação).
• Newly arrived immigrant families on low incomes, with or without child benefit yet.

Not for you if: you only need free textbooks, which every public school pupil gets. Read "Getting Free School Textbooks in Portugal".

School social support (ação social escolar, ASE) is help with school costs for children from low-income families. It covers meals, school materials, school trips, and more. Your support band follows your child benefit (abono de família) band. On band 1 your child is on band A and eats free. On band 2 your child is on band B and pays half: €0.73 a meal instead of €1.46. You apply once a year through your child's school.

Who can get it

The support is for children in public preschools, public basic and secondary schools, and private or cooperative schools with a state contract. Some vocational schools are covered too. Ordinary private schools are not.

The Azores and Madeira run their own schemes, so this guide covers mainland Portugal only.

Your band depends on your household's child benefit band:

• Child benefit band 1: ASE band A, the full support.
• Child benefit band 2: ASE band B, half support.
• Child benefit band 3: band C. Apart from a lower fee in a school residence, band C only ever helped with textbooks, from year 5 up. Textbooks are now free for every public school pupil in compulsory education, so band C brings little extra help. A band C pupil pays the full meal price.
• Band 4, band 5, or no band: no national support.

Your council can add its own support on top, so ask what it offers.

How the child benefit bands work

Social Security (Segurança Social) works out your band from your "reference income". It adds up the year's income of everyone in your household. It then divides that total by the number of children entitled to child benefit, plus one.

For a first claim made in 2026, it uses your 2025 income:

• Band 1: up to €3,657.50 a year.
• Band 2: more than €3,657.50, up to €7,315.00.
• Band 3: more than €7,315.00, up to €12,435.50.

For example, a couple with two children and €14,000 of income in 2025 divide it by three. That gives €4,666.67, which is band 2, so the children get band B.

Pay, self-employed income, rents, pensions, and most other benefits count. Child, disability, and dependency benefits do not.

What your child gets

Meals

Every public preschool and school serves lunch. The national price is €1.46 a meal.

• Band A: lunch is free, and your child also gets breakfast.
• Band B: you pay half, which is €0.73.
• Everyone else: you pay €1.46.

You book and pay for meals before the day. If you book on the day itself, you pay a €0.30 extra charge. During the Christmas and Easter holidays, public schools keep serving meals to ASE pupils, at the usual price for their band.

School materials and trips

These are the national yearly amounts, from year 1 to year 12:

• School materials: €16 a year on band A and €8 on band B.
• School trips: band A pays nothing and band B pays half. The help covers trips that are part of school work, in Portugal only. The yearly limit is €20 on band A and €10 on band B.

Your council can pay more for preschool and primary school (years 1 to 4) pupils. Porto, for example, pays band A pupils in preschool to year 2 €20 for materials and €20 for trips.

Free school milk

Children in public preschools and in years 1 to 4 get free milk every school day, whatever your income. If your child needs lactose-free milk, give the school a doctor's note. If you want a plant drink instead, tell the school grouping in writing; schools keep only a small share of plant drinks, so ask early. You can do either at any time of year.

Extra help in secondary school

• Fees: secondary pupils on ASE pay no fees for diplomas and certificates of their results that year.
• Living away from home: sometimes a secondary pupil boards with a host family because there is no school transport. Band A then gets €80.57 a month and band B €42.97, for 10 months.
• School residences: where your child lives in an official school residence, you pay a monthly fee. It is €53.71 on band A, €107.43 on band B, €188.00 on band C, and €268.57 for everyone else.

The amounts for host families and residences are percentages of the social support index (IAS). This guide uses the 2026 value, €537.13.

Merit grants in secondary school

A secondary pupil on band A or B can apply for a merit grant (bolsa de mérito). It is about €1,343 a year (two and a half times the IAS). Your child needs both of these, from the year before:

• an average of 4 or more on a 1 to 5 scale, or 14 or more on a 0 to 20 scale, rounded to the nearest whole number;
• a pass in every subject.

A pupil repeating a year cannot get the grant. Religious and moral education does not count towards the average.

You apply at the school by 30 September each year, or by the next working day if it falls at a weekend. Bring proof of the marks. The school head decides. The grant is paid in three parts: 40 percent in the first term and 30 percent in each of the other two. Your child can have it on top of ordinary ASE support, and it also covers the diploma and certificate fees.

Who runs what

Since 2022, councils (câmaras municipais) run school social support at every level, from preschool to year 12. They also manage school meals and organise school transport. Textbooks are the exception: the Ministry of Education and the schools run the free textbook scheme.

In practice, you still apply at your child's school grouping (agrupamento de escolas). In Porto, for example, the grouping checks your papers and tells the council your band. The council then pays for preschool and primary school support. The grouping itself handles the materials help for years 5 to 12.

School transport

If the school is too far to walk to and there is no public transport, your council must provide school transport. It is free for years 1 to 9. In secondary school it can be free or part-paid. The law defines how far is too far, and your council's school transport plan applies it.

Your council also helps secondary pupils whose own council area has no secondary school. Ask your council's education office how to apply for a place.

Children with special educational needs

If your child has an individual education programme (programa educativo individual) at school, extra help applies:

• Meals and school materials: your child gets them on band A, whatever your income.
• Assistive technology: the school can pay towards equipment your child needs, up to the band A materials amount.
• Transport: if your child cannot use public or school transport, transport is free, whatever your band. The Ministry of Education pays for it.

How to apply

1. Get proof of your child benefit band. Log in to the Social Security portal (Segurança Social Direta) and ask for a statement on your child benefit (declaração de situação). If you work in the public sector, your payroll office gives you the statement instead.
2. Go to the school's ASE office (Serviços de Ação Social Escolar). Apply there and hand in the statement. Ask for a receipt.
3. Wait for the grouping's decision. It checks your papers and confirms your child's band.
4. Apply again every year. Apply within the deadline your school grouping sets. Ask for the date when you enrol.

You must give accurate information. If the school doubts your income, it can check it and report what it finds.

If your income drops during the year

You do not have to wait for next year. These two routes can move your child up a band:

• Ask Social Security to reassess your child benefit band. You can do this on the portal if your income has fallen and 90 days have passed since your last income check. For requests in 2026, it looks at your 2026 income. Band 1 then goes up to €3,759.91 and band 2 up to €7,519.82. The decision appears from the 20th of the month after you ask. Take the new statement to the school.
• Tell the school if a parent has lost their job. Your child may be on band B while one parent is out of work against their will. If that parent has been registered as unemployed at the job centre (IEFP) for three months or more, your child moves to band A while it lasts. Bring a statement from the job centre. If the parent was self-employed, they must also show their work stopped at least three months ago.

A change during the year gives your child every ASE support from then on, except textbook help and the merit grant.

If you have just arrived in Portugal

Apply for child benefit as soon as you can. Child benefit starts from the month after you became entitled, if you apply within six months. Social Security accepts a residence permit, a residence visa, or a receipt for a pending application, among other documents. A child born abroad shares the parents' resident status, once the parents applied to the immigration agency (AIMA) more than 30 days ago.

While you wait, tell the school's ASE office. If the school thinks your child is likely to qualify, it can give support provisionally while the decision is made.

Two special cases have their own rules:

• No valid residence document yet. Your child can still get support if the school has enrolled them on a conditional basis. Bring your payslips to show your household would fall in child benefit band 1 or 2. The school works out your income the same way Social Security does.
• Refugees. Children who arrived as part of Portugal's refugee intake get band A. You only need to ask at the school grouping.

For how to claim child benefit itself, read "Child Benefits and Parental Leave in Portugal". For school places, read "Enrolling Your Child in a Portuguese Public School".

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Your council or school grouping can tell you exactly what it offers.

Sources

This guide is written from official sources and, where relevant, organisations' own websites.

• Diário da República, Despacho n.º 8452-A/2015, de 31 de julho, articles 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 11 to 14 and annexes I to III and V (scope, meal price and €0.30 surcharge, residence fees, bands, proof of band, income checks, provisional support, unemployment rule, mid-year changes, irregular status, special needs, merit grant) (Portuguese only; the DRE record lists two amendments, Despacho n.º 5296/2017 and Despacho n.º 7255/2018, checked October 2026)
• Diário da República, Despacho n.º 5296/2017, de 16 de junho (school trips, refugee children on band A, band C for textbooks, merit grant rules and 30 September deadline) (Portuguese only)
• Diário da República, Despacho n.º 7255/2018, de 31 de julho (holiday meals at all public schools, plant drink request, current annex III amounts for materials, trips and host families) (Portuguese only)
• Diário da República, Decreto-Lei n.º 55/2009, de 2 de março, consolidated, articles 2, 13, 16, 17, 25, 28, 32, 33, 36 and 44 (scope, breakfast for band A as amended by Lei n.º 82/2023, free milk, lactose-free milk, transport, secondary fee exemption, merit grant, Azores and Madeira) (Portuguese only)
• Diário da República, Decreto-Lei n.º 21/2019, de 30 de janeiro, consolidated, articles 33, 35, 36 and 76 (councils run school social support, meals and transport; transfer complete by 31 March 2022; transport help where a council has no secondary school) (Portuguese only)
• Diário da República, Decreto-Lei n.º 54/2018, de 6 de julho, consolidated, article 38 (references to the old special education law now point to this law) (Portuguese only)
• Diário da República, Despacho n.º 921/2019, de 24 de janeiro, preamble (free textbooks extended to all compulsory schooling in public schools) (Portuguese only)
• Instituto da Segurança Social, Guia Prático: Abono de Família para Crianças e Jovens, 14 July 2026 (reference income, bands for 2025 and 2026 income, reassessment, start date, documents for foreign nationals, IAS 2026 of €537.13) (Portuguese only)
• Câmara Municipal do Porto, Ação social escolar, updated 28 July 2026 (application steps at the school grouping, yearly application, €1.46 and €0.73 meal prices still charged, Porto's own amounts, who pays what) (Portuguese only; an example of one council's scheme)

Last verified October 2026. Rules and fees change; check the official source before acting.