Schools and gan in Ashdod: registration and support

Ashdod has about 56,000 pupils in 132 schools and 443 kindergartens (municipal figures for 2026-27). All registration goes through the municipal Registration Department (נפתח בכרטיסייה חדשה) at 4 HaKlita St, 2nd floor (phone 08-9568282, answered 08:30-13:00).

When to register

• 2027-28: dates had not been published on 9 October 2026. In the last cycle, registration for 2026-27 (5787) opened on 19 January 2026 at 08:00 in the municipal online system, so expect the next round around January 2027.
• Gan: registration is a technical step. You may list two preferred gans and placements are sent out in June. There are separate zoning maps for state and state-religious gans (gan registration (נפתח בכרטיסייה חדשה)).
• Grade 1: registration is the final school placement (grade 1 (נפתח בכרטיסייה חדשה)). Two city-wide 'unique' schools are listed: the state Torani school Noam and the state-religious school Moriah.
• Grade 7: placement is automatic by feeder elementary school (middle-school placement (נפתח בכרטיסייה חדשה)).
• New arrivals and transfers: pupils arriving in Ashdod in grades 1-12 register through the same department; transfer requests go through the online placement portal (placement (נפתח בכרטיסייה חדשה)).

Under 3s and afternoons

• 46 subsidised 'semel' daycare centres are run by non-profits (Ironit, Amal, Na'amat, WIZO, Emunah, Beit Yaakov and others) under Ministry of Education supervision; there are also about 40 licensed private frameworks (0-3 page (נפתח בכרטיסייה חדשה)).
• The municipal Family Daycare Unit (נפתח בכרטיסייה חדשה) supervises home-based mishpachtonim for up to five children aged 3 months to 3 years.
• Ironit (נפתח בכרטיסייה חדשה) runs tzaharonim in gans (Sun-Thu 14:00-17:00 with a hot lunch; 2026-27 registration ran 3-16 August 2026) and in schools (נפתח בכרטיסייה חדשה) from 1 September 2026 to 30 June 2027.

Support for olim children

• The municipal absorption department has an education coordinator, and its absorption coordinators (נפתח בכרטיסייה חדשה) work in Russian, French and English, Spanish and Amharic.
• The educational psychology service Shefi (נפתח בכרטיסייה חדשה) has about 40 psychologists; its team speaks Hebrew, English, Russian, Spanish, French, Romanian and Amharic.
• The Ethiopian olim centre (נפתח בכרטיסייה חדשה) offers children's clubs and homework help.
• We did not find a published Ashdod programme of kids' ulpan or of French-, Russian- or English-language school tracks. Ask the Registration Department and your school about Ministry Hebrew support hours for new-immigrant pupils.

Anglo, French and Russian-friendly options

No school in Ashdod advertises itself as an English-, French- or Russian-language school. Nefesh B'Nefesh's Ashdod guide (נפתח בכרטיסייה חדשה) links maps of state, state-religious and Haredi schools. Ironit's French (CAFAI) and CIS community programmes run after-school activities in those languages.