Every year is the same story: schools close for months, without any real solution of continuity for parents. We are talking about families in which they almost always work both, with commitments and responsibilities to manage 8-10 hours a day. How do they organize? They arrange, or rather, they see themselves forced to enroll their children to the summer centers. One expense most of the time very heavy but the only possible alternative if you do not have grandparents, friends or other solutions available.
It is a paradox that in a modern country is not possible to set up a more serious and accessible support system for families. The school is not only a place of education, but also of sociality and leaving it closed for so long without an adequate plan is a huge cost – not only economic, but social.
But returning to the summer centers, as they cost on average in Italy e How much do they weigh on the monthly spending of a family? Has investigated these aspects the new investigation of Altroconsumo who asked about 1000 of participants in ACMakers, the Consumer Community who collaborates with the Association to carry out tests, polls and investigations, to answer some questions.
Summer centers 2025
From the investigation of Altroconsumo A fact emerges that must make you think: Registering two children with a summer center for a month can cost up to 1,200 euros. In a period in which many families struggle to get on, this figure weighs like a boulder on the domestic budget.
The choice of the summer center is no longer a luxury or optional, but a real necessity. Three out of ten families choose to enroll children for at least four weeks, because there are no realistic alternatives.
The gap of weekly prices is broad, but the most frequent data indicate expenses of 60-150 euros per week for each child. Making two accounts, here you get rapidly in some cases overcome a thousand euros for two children in a month. And if you add trips and extras, the figure splashes even higher.
The concessions, then, remain a mirage for many. A few discount linked to the ISEE exists above all in the municipal centers, but the majority of parents do not benefit from it. Private structures are almost always “full rates”, without reduction margins.
Despite the costs, families prefer sports centers and speakers, which offer more varied and structured activities. The municipal centers, which could represent a cheaper solution, are instead not very chosen, probably for the quality or lower services.
Those who have two children often choose a combination of speakers and sports centers, while the majority remains faithful to a single center throughout the period.
The critical issues of the summer centers
What are the problems of the summer centers? Most parents do not report serious problems, but the small critical issues are there and are not to be underestimated: poor canteen, approximate communication, promised and never arrived services.
The times, then, are a serious problem: often too restricted, they force those who work late to make mortal jumps to be able to take their children. Finally, unusual spaces and lack of shadow areas make you perceive how little it really takes in the quality of the structures.
But why do we still have to make up in Italy in Italy, with schools closed for too long and very expensive summer centers? Wouldn’t it be time to rethink the whole system, with policies in favor of families and services accessible for everyone?
