School rights for olim students in Israel

Updated 25 October 2026

An oleh student has rights. They are written down, they are public, and the Ministry of Education has a whole department for them: the אגף לקליטת תלמידים עולים, the department for the integration of olim students.

If you know extra time and other testing accommodations from a 504 plan or an IEP in the US, or from access arrangements for GCSEs in the UK, the idea will feel familiar. The basis is different: here, the right comes from when your child made aliyah.

But these rights are not automatic. Nobody offers them to you. A right that you must ask for is, in practice, a right that depends on what the parent knows.

This guide tells you what you need to know before you ask.

How long the rights last, and why it surprises parents

This is the fact that changes the most, and the one you hear the least.

Exam accommodations for an oleh student do not last two or three years. They stay open for ten years from aliyah, or until age 23 if that date comes later. For olim from Ethiopia, the period is twelve years, or until age 25.

In other words, a child who arrives in kita ד (fourth grade) stays eligible for the rest of school, בגרות (bagrut, the matriculation exams) included. A teenager who arrives in kita ט (ninth grade) is still eligible well after the army.

Many families stop asking after two years, because they think the right has expired. It has not.

Accommodations on exams

The ministry sets exam rules for olim students in a circular from its director general. The rules depend on a level, which comes from the grade your child was in on arrival in Israel:

• level א (aleph) for a child who arrived between kita א and kita ג (first to third grade);
• level ב (bet) for a child who arrived between kita ד and kita ח (fourth to eighth grade);
• level ג (gimel) for a child who arrived between kita ט and kita י״ב (ninth to twelfth grade).

The main accommodations on the בגרות exams:

Extra time: 25% more on written exams.

A dictionary, electronic ones included, between Hebrew and the child's native language. For the English exam, an electronic dictionary between English and the native language.

Spelling mistakes ignored, and the questions read aloud, on written exams in Hebrew. The Hebrew exam itself has stricter rules.

Bonus points: on the regular papers, the school adds 10 points to the year grade at level א, and 15 at levels ב and ג.

A translated or bilingual paper. Some papers come in translation for olim, and the compulsory subjects have bilingual papers. The ministry sets the languages paper by paper, for each exam session. For the winter 2026 session, several math and humanities papers came in French. At level ג, some exams can also be taken orally.

These accommodations are a right, but the school must register them, together with your child's level, for each exam session. Check that it did. If it did not, it is up to you to ask.

What happens during the school year

Apart from exams, the ministry gives schools extra hours of Hebrew teaching, based on how many olim they have: six hours a week in total for a school with up to three, more above that. But the ministry has no data on how schools actually use these hours, and what a child gets varies enormously from one school to the next. The variable that matters most is not the quality of the school. It is how many olim the school takes in.

A school in a town with a large immigrant community often has its own ulpan and a staff member in charge of olim. A school with three olim shares six hours a week between them, and the child there is that much more alone.

That is a serious reason to ask the question before you register, not after.

The trap of "easy to catch up" subjects

One common belief is worth naming, because it is costly.

Parents often hear that their child will catch up in the "objective" subjects, math and science, because numbers are universal. The intention is good. The conclusion is wrong.

A child who mastered fractions back home does not struggle with fractions. The child struggles with the word מכנה (denominator), with the word מונה (numerator), with the word צמצום (simplifying). The child's real level is intact, and the grade collapses. And that grade, not the real level, decides the child's math group in kita י (tenth grade), so the child's מגמות (majors), so the university programs that stay open.

Math vocabulary is the quietest and most expensive gap in an oleh child's path. It closes fast once you know it is there, and the program for each grade is here, in Hebrew.

How to ask, step by step

The order matters, because each person can send you on to the next.

1. The school's רכז הבגרות, the exam coordinator, who registers students for the exams. Ask in writing, and ask what has been registered, not what is "possible".
2. The מנהל אגף החינוך of your municipality, the head of education for your town. This person knows what the schools in town really offer.
3. The ministry's אגף לקליטת תלמידים עולים, when the school says no or does not answer.

One piece of advice holds for all three: always ask by naming the accommodation. "Can my son get some help?" gets a polite answer and nothing else. "My son made aliyah three years ago, he is level ב, and I am asking for his accommodations to be registered for the בגרות: extra time, dictionary, bonus points" gets a file opened.

The Ministry of Education publishes the current rules, the forms and the contact details of its departments. Check this year's conditions there before you do anything: the thresholds and procedures change often, and second-hand information is often a year out of date.