Registration for gan and school in Tel Aviv-Yafo is done once a year, mostly online, and it is easy to miss. Here is what I would know before the window opens.
When registration happens
The city says registration for kindergarten and first grade runs from January to February, and children entering the city's system for the first time also register in January (Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality (opens in a new tab)). The city's kindergarten page gives January to March in one place and January to February in another, and says the registration site is announced the day before it opens, on the city's website and Facebook (Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality (opens in a new tab)). The exact dates for the 2027-28 school year were not published when I checked, so watch the city's site from December.
Gan registration is not automatic: parents register every year (Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality (opens in a new tab)). Placement notices come in June, with appeals in June and July (Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality (opens in a new tab)).
How to register
If the arnona bill is in your name and your Tel Aviv address is on your ID, you can register online without visiting the municipality. You enter both your and your child's ID numbers and the child's date of birth, choose a stream, and give up to two preferences; confirmation comes by text and email (Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality (opens in a new tab)). The streams are mamlachti (state) and mamlachti-dati (state-religious) (Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality (opens in a new tab)).
Schools are assigned by address, usually close to home, and some addresses map to both a state and a state-religious school. "Regional" schools (nature, arts, democratic and shared schools) sit outside the zoning and hold open houses during registration (Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality (opens in a new tab)). Nefesh B'Nefesh publishes maps of Tel Aviv's state, state-religious and Haredi schools (Nefesh B'Nefesh (opens in a new tab)).
Papers olim need
The city asks for an arnona bill or rental contract in the parents' name and IDs for parents and children (a passport if there is no ID yet, or a birth certificate). Bring the teudat oleh if your child may need Hebrew support, and grades from the previous school for grades 2 to 6 (Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality (opens in a new tab)). If you arrive mid-year or without full paperwork, go to the Education Service Center with passports and your contract. It answers on 03-7244700 and sherutedu@tel-aviv.gov.il, Sunday to Thursday, 8am to 3pm, and recommends making an appointment (Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality (opens in a new tab)). Before you arrive, the city suggests preparing immunization records, birth certificates and school reports (Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality (opens in a new tab)).
Hebrew support for olim children
Support for olim children is coordinated with the Ministry of Education, and parents should go to the principal at the start of the year to apply (Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality (opens in a new tab)). The city's Olim Department, which has English, French, Spanish and Russian coordinators, can help when something doesn't line up (Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality (opens in a new tab)).
English at school
Most schools teach English from first grade, and some offer a separate class for native English speakers if enough children enroll. The city says there is currently no English-Hebrew bilingual school in Tel Aviv (Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality (opens in a new tab)). One private option in the city is Tabeetha School at 21 Yefet Street in Jaffa, an English-speaking school run by the Church of Scotland that follows the English system to IGCSE, GCSE and A levels, and admits children of all faiths (Tabeetha School (opens in a new tab)).
Other help
- Each elementary school has an educational-psychological team, and the city runs separate special education and psychological services pages (Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality (opens in a new tab)).
- The city runs Facebook groups for kindergarten, elementary and high school parents (Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality (opens in a new tab)).
- Look up options in the school, gan and childcare directories.