Mid-October 2026: at school you are in the first weeks of the first term (quadrimestre), and the first end-of-term grading meeting (scrutinio) with the conduct grade arrives between December and January, in eight to twelve weeks. This post concerns all Italian upper secondary schools, high schools (licei), technical and vocational institutes, from Year 1 to Year 5. I am writing it now because the rules on conduct changed in 2024 and many families know them only by hearsay: “with a five they fail you”, “with a six you have to write an essay”. There is some truth in it, but the details matter, and it is better to know them before December, not after.
A preliminary point: it is not new. 2026/27 is the third round of grading meetings under these rules, so they are fully in force. And there is no need to be alarmed: the great majority of students have a conduct grade between 8 and 10 and will never hear about any of this. But it is useful to know what happens in the cases of 5 and 6.
What the law says
Law no. 150 of 1 October 2024, in force since 31 October 2024, changed the weight of the conduct grade in upper secondary school. In practice:
- With a 5 in conduct the student is not admitted to the following year or to the state exam (the maturità, Italy’s school-leaving exam), even if all the other subjects are passing.
- With a 6 in conduct the judgement is suspended until September: the student must present and discuss a critical paper on civic education, on the theme of active citizenship. In Year 5, the paper is discussed during the oral interview of the state exam.
- If the paper is missing, or is insufficient, the student is not admitted.
- The maximum school credit of the band can be awarded only with a conduct grade of 9 or above. School credit is worth up to 40 points over the last three years, split 12, 13 and 15.
The detailed implementation is in ministerial order OM 67 of 31 March 2025 and in the 2025 Presidential Decree (DPR). If your school puts a specific situation to you, those two texts are the reference.
One point that matters: the decision stays with the class council, which must give reasons for it. There is no automatic mechanism triggered by a disciplinary note or a total of absences. The conduct grade is a collective judgement, and it has to be justified.
What really counts in the conduct grade
The grade is not an impression. Every school has criteria written in its school regulations, and the conduct marking grid usually looks at four things:
- Behaviour and respect for the rules: punctuality, use of the mobile phone, respect for classmates, teachers, staff and premises.
- Disciplinary notes and measures: how many, how serious, whether they remained isolated episodes or were repeated.
- Attendance: absences, late arrivals, early exits, excuses brought in on time.
- Participation and responsibility: how the student is in class, whether they meet deadlines, how they behave on projects and trips.
There is no universal threshold of notes. In the regulations I have seen, moving from one grade to another depends on seriousness and repetition, not on a count. That is why the only way to know how it works at your child’s school is to ask for the grid.
How you get to a 6 or a 5
In practice, a low conduct grade almost never arrives suddenly. The typical path is gradual:
- A series of verbal warnings, then notes in the register, for similar reasons (disruption, lateness, phone).
- A more serious episode, perhaps a suspension, which signals that the picture has worsened.
- A pattern of absences and lateness that is not corrected.
- An attitude that doesn’t change after meetings.
The point is that, if it follows these stages, the family almost always has signals weeks or months in advance. A flat 5, with no earlier signal at all, is very rare; if you find yourself in that situation, it deserves a formal discussion with the school, because there must be a justification.
A 5 in December, then, doesn’t automatically mean non-admission in June: the first-term grade is a snapshot at that moment, and there is the whole second term to change it. What matters is how you arrive at the final grading meeting.
What the family can do
For most situations you don’t need a lawyer: you need information and a well-handled meeting. Concrete steps, in order.
- Ask for the criteria. The school regulations and the behaviour marking grid are school documents, usually on the website or in the school office. Read them before the problem arises.
- Talk to the class coordinator. Not just before the grading meeting, but in October-November, if you see the first notes. Ask: “What needs to change so that conduct doesn’t get worse?”. Better still: “What do you expect over the next four weeks?”. A precise goal helps the student more than a generic threat. For how to approach the meeting I refer you to parent-teacher meetings: what to ask.
- Reread the co-responsibility pact (patto di corresponsabilità). It is the document the family signed at the start of the year, and it sets out the mutual commitments. If you need a neutral reference in a difficult meeting, that is it.
- Talk to your child before going to school. Understanding what happened from their point of view, without defending and without putting them on trial, is half the work. Often behind a behaviour there is a conflict with a classmate, a teacher it isn’t working with, a difficult period.
- Keep a record. Notes, communications, replies at meetings: a written chronology avoids arguments about what was said and when.
A clarification of roles: I am a tutor, not a lawyer. If the situation leads to a measure you think unjust and you are considering an appeal, the route is to consult a lawyer, who can read the documents and tell you which deadlines and routes exist. It is not something to improvise by reading a blog.
The civic education paper with a 6
If your child has a 6 in conduct at the end of the year, the judgement is suspended and in September they must present and discuss a critical paper on civic education, linked to active citizenship. If they are in Year 5, the discussion takes place during the interview at the state exam.
Two things to know. First, it is not a written punishment: it is a piece of reflection, in which the student must show they have understood the meaning of what went wrong and can connect it to citizenship themes. Second, a missing or insufficient paper leads to non-admission, so it must be taken seriously, even if in July it seems far away.
How to prepare, in practice:
- Choose a theme that fits. Not a theme chosen at random: one that speaks to what happened (respect for the rules, responsibility in the school community, conscious use of digital tools, living together). The paper is more convincing when there is a thread between the student’s story and the reflection.
- Start from the civic education programme. The subject is worth 33 hours a year (Law 92/2019), so the school has already indicated thematic areas: the constitution, sustainable development, digital citizenship. Ask the civic education coordinator for the marking criteria.
- Work in advance. Not at the end of August. A paper written and revised in several passes, with a teacher reading it, has a different quality.
- Prepare to discuss it aloud. In the discussion what counts is how well the student can explain their own reasoning, not just the written text. Try getting them to tell it to you aloud, without reading: if they can say it in three minutes, they have understood.
What it means for school credit
Here there is a less conspicuous but real consequence. School credit, that is the points that enter the final maturità mark, is worth up to 40 points over the last three years: 12 in Year 3, 13 in Year 4, 15 in Year 5. Each year the credit falls into a band determined by the average of the grades, and within the band the class council awards the lower or the higher score.
Under the new rules the top of the band can be given only with a conduct grade of 9 or above. With an 8 in conduct, even with an excellent average, the council can’t award the maximum. It isn’t a catastrophe: we are talking about a point or a little more. But added up over three years, those points weigh on the maturità mark, and it is worth knowing before deciding that “it’s only an eight”.
The overall picture
A simple way of seeing the thresholds:
| Conduct | What it involves (upper secondary school) |
|---|---|
| 9 or 10 | No constraints; top of the credit band possible |
| 7 or 8 | Normal admission; top of the credit band cannot be awarded |
| 6 | Judgement suspended, civic education paper in September |
| 5 | Non-admission to the following year or to the state exam |
The grades 7 and 8 carry no formal consequences beyond the credit, but they are the signal that something is wrong, and it is worth treating them as such.
If you need a comparison with other numerical rules on being held back, I wrote about it in how many failing grades before being held back: conduct is a criterion of its own, which is added to the grades and is not offset by them.
If it is the final year
In Year 5, the rules weigh more because they intertwine with the maturità. With a 5 in conduct you are not admitted to the exam; with a 6, the paper is discussed at the interview. Those in Year 5 already have a packed calendar: if you want to see how to fit everything in, I put the picture in Year 5: the plan for the maturità from September. The advice for Year 5 is to talk to the coordinator very early, in October, and not just before the January grading meeting.
What is really needed
Almost always, behind a conduct grade that is slipping there is a difficulty that isn’t about conduct: a student who isn’t following because they have fallen behind, and who gets bored or restless because they don’t understand. I have seen students struggling in maths or physics who at some point start to disrupt the class, and the note arrives before the diagnosis. In these cases, working on the real problem, that is the gaps and the method, often fixes the behaviour too, because someone who understands what is being done in class has no need to get distracted. On the maths page you can see how I set up this work.
If you would like to talk about it, write to me from the contacts page: a free 30-minute introductory call helps to understand whether behind your child’s behaviour there is a gap to fill, and what to do in the weeks left before the grading meeting. For everything else, the references are your school’s regulations and, if needed, a lawyer.
