The Sicilian Region strengthens support for families and the right to study of middle and high school students, allocating over 22 million euros, between state resources and regional funds, to the Municipalities for the free and semi-free supply of textbooks and expanding the range of beneficiaries. In fact, with a decree from the Department of Vocational Education and Training, the plan for the distribution of the sums to be assigned to the local authorities on the island for the 2025/2026 school year was approved.
«Compared to last year – states councilor Mimmo Turano – we are expanding the number of beneficiaries of the contribution for school books, thus giving concrete help to Sicilian families with low incomes».
In fact, among the main innovations of the provision is the expansion of the requirements for access to the contribution: to combat economic inequalities and encourage wider participation in the education system, the ISEE threshold has been raised to 13,000 euros, compared to the 10,632.94 euros foreseen last year. For the 2025/2026 school year, the unit amounts of contributions have been redetermined, differentiated by level of education and class attended. In particular, for lower secondary school there is a contribution of 400 euros for the first class, 300 euros for the second class and 200 euros for the third class. For upper secondary school, the amounts are set at 400 euros for the first class, 250 euros for the second class, 400 euros for the third class and 350 euros for the fourth and fifth classes.
The redetermination of the amounts allows for a more equitable and effective distribution of the available resources, in line with the needs identified in the area. The resources will be distributed to the Municipalities with subsequent measures until the needs are covered