How to Get Your Child's Foreign Diagnosis Accepted by the French MDPH System

If your child has an existing diagnosis — a US IEP, a UK EHCP, an Australian Learning Plan, or clinical evaluations from any country — and you've moved to France, here's what you need to know immediately: none of these documents carry legal weight in the French system. The MDPH will not evaluate English-language records, and no French school is bound to honor a foreign support plan. But the clinical data inside those documents is your most valuable asset for accelerating the French process, and a structured approach to transferring that evidence can save months.

The France Special Education Blueprint provides the complete pathway for this transfer — from sworn translation through French specialist reframing to MDPH dossier submission — because getting a foreign diagnosis "accepted" in France is not a translation exercise. It's a reframing exercise that requires understanding how French evaluators think.

Why Foreign Diagnoses Don't Transfer Directly

France's special education system is built on a fundamentally different model than the US, UK, or Australian systems. Three structural differences block direct transfer:

Medical gatekeeping: In the US or UK, a school-based educational psychologist can identify a learning disability and trigger support. In France, every disability must be diagnosed by an external French-registered medical specialist — a neuropediatrician, psychiatrist, orthophoniste, or psychomotricien. The school itself has no authority to diagnose or independently allocate dedicated support.

Administrative sovereignty: The MDPH is a département-level administrative body that makes independent decisions based on its own evaluation criteria. It has no mechanism for recognizing foreign administrative decisions (IEPs, EHCPs, etc.) any more than a French court would automatically enforce a foreign court judgment.

Language requirements: All MDPH submissions must be in French. The Cerfa 1569201 dossier, the Cerfa 1569501 medical certificate, the Projet de Vie, and all supporting documents must either be in French or accompanied by certified translations from a sworn translator (traducteur assermenté).

The Transfer Pathway: Five Steps

Step 1: Compile Your Complete Foreign Record

Before you engage translators or French specialists, assemble everything:

• Current IEP, EHCP, or equivalent support plan
• All psychological and psycho-educational evaluations (full reports, not summaries)
• Speech-language therapy reports
• Occupational therapy evaluations
• Behavioral assessments (FBAs, ABC data)
• Progress reports from specialists
• School report cards showing accommodations and their impact
• Any neurological or psychiatric evaluations

The more comprehensive your foreign evidence, the less new evaluation a French specialist needs to conduct. A complete foreign file can reduce the French diagnostic phase from 3-6 months to 4-8 weeks.

Step 2: Get Certified Translations

All documents must be translated by a traducteur assermenté — a court-certified sworn translator registered with the French Court of Appeal (Cour d'Appel). Regular translations, including those by professional translation agencies, are not accepted by the MDPH.

Finding a sworn translator:

• Search the directory at each Cour d'Appel's website (e.g., liste des experts for Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux)
• Specify "English to French" and "medical/education" specialization
• Expect costs of approximately €30-€50 per page for medical/technical documents
• Request the translator's official stamp and certification on each translated page

Priority documents to translate (in order of impact):

1. The most recent comprehensive psychological or psycho-educational evaluation
2. The current support plan (IEP/EHCP) showing specific accommodations and their rationale
3. Specialist therapy reports (speech, OT, behavioral)
4. Key medical reports from neurologists or psychiatrists

You don't need to translate every document — a French specialist will use the comprehensive evaluation and the current support plan as their primary reference.

Step 3: Present to a French-Registered Specialist

This is the critical step most expat families misunderstand. You're not asking the French doctor to "validate" your foreign diagnosis. You're asking them to reframe your child's clinical profile into the French diagnostic and administrative framework and complete the mandatory Cerfa 15695*01 medical certificate.

The French specialist will:

• Review the translated foreign evaluations
• Conduct their own clinical interview and, if necessary, supplementary testing
• Map your child's diagnosis to the French classification system (which uses different terminology and categories — e.g., "Troubles DYS" for specific learning difficulties, "TSA" for autism spectrum)
• Complete the 8-page Cerfa 15695*01 medical certificate, which is the mandatory medical component of the MDPH dossier

Finding the right specialist:

• SPRINT France maintains a directory of English-speaking therapists and clinicians, primarily in Paris
• For ADHD or autism: neuropediatrician or child psychiatrist (pédopsychiatre)
• For dyslexia, dyspraxia, dysphasia: orthophoniste (speech therapist) for initial assessment, confirmed by a neuropediatrician
• For motor and coordination disorders: psychomotricien

Step 4: Bridge the Diagnostic Frameworks

The diagnostic labels your child carries from their home country may not map one-to-one onto French categories. Understanding these differences prevents confusion during the MDPH evaluation:

The French specialist handles this mapping. Your role is providing them with enough translated evidence to work from so they don't need to repeat the entire diagnostic process.

Step 5: Integrate Into the MDPH Dossier

With the French medical certificate (Cerfa 15695*01) completed, the foreign evidence becomes supporting documentation in your MDPH dossier. Include:

• The French medical certificate as the primary medical document
• Translated foreign evaluations as supporting evidence (labeled "pièces complémentaires")
• A Projet de Vie that references your child's history and functional impact using the French administrative language evaluators expect
• The GEVA-Sco completed by the French school's educational team

The Projet de Vie is where your foreign experience becomes strategic. You know exactly what accommodations worked for your child because you've seen them implemented in another system. Translate that operational knowledge into the functional-impact language the MDPH requires: not "my child had a 1:1 aide in the US" but "my child cannot sustain task engagement beyond 8-10 minutes without individualized redirection, as documented across three years of IEP progress monitoring in [previous country]."

The Bilingualism Diagnostic Trap

A specific challenge for international families: when your child enters the French school system, teachers may attribute academic difficulties entirely to language acquisition — "they're struggling because French is their second language" — rather than recognizing an underlying learning disability.

Clinical best practice distinguishes between FLE (Français Langue Étrangère) acquisition struggles and genuine neurodevelopmental conditions by testing in both languages. A true learning disability (dyslexia, dyspraxia, TDL) manifests deficits in the child's dominant native language as well as French. A language acquisition issue appears only in the newly acquired language.

If your child has a pre-existing diagnosis from their home country, bring the translated evidence to the school meeting immediately. Don't let the school attribute known disabilities to bilingualism — this is one of the most common reasons expat children lose years of support in France.

Timeline: How Long Does the Transfer Take?

The savings come from the pre-submission phase. MDPH processing time is independent of evidence quality, but a stronger dossier reduces the risk of return-for-missing-documents, which resets the clock entirely.

Who This Is For

• Families who have just moved to France with a child who had an IEP (US), EHCP (UK), ILP (Australia), or equivalent support plan in their previous country
• Parents with comprehensive clinical evaluations from foreign specialists who need to translate that evidence into the French MDPH framework
• Families whose children have diagnoses (ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia) that need to be mapped to French diagnostic categories
• Parents returning to France after an overseas posting whose child received diagnoses abroad
• Families whose children attend French schools where teachers are attributing a known disability to language acquisition difficulties

Who This Is NOT For

• Families whose children have never been evaluated — you need to start the French diagnostic process from scratch (the guide covers this pathway too, but this specific transfer strategy requires existing evidence)
• Parents whose children are adapting normally to the French school system with no SEN concerns
• Families at international schools that handle SEN entirely internally without engaging the French state system

Frequently Asked Questions

Will a US IEP or UK EHCP speed up the French MDPH process?

It speeds up the pre-submission phase significantly — a French specialist who can review translated foreign evaluations needs fewer appointments and less new testing. But the MDPH's own processing timeline (legally 4 months, practically 6-18 months) runs independently of the quality or quantity of evidence submitted. The real value is reducing the risk of a returned dossier, which resets the processing clock to zero.

Do I need to repeat all testing in France if my child was fully evaluated abroad?

Not necessarily. A French specialist will review your translated foreign evaluations and determine what supplementary testing is needed. If the foreign evaluations are comprehensive and recent (within 1-2 years), the French specialist may conduct a focused clinical interview and limited supplementary testing rather than a full re-evaluation. The Cerfa 15695*01 medical certificate can reference foreign evaluation data if it's been translated and reviewed by the French specialist completing the form.

Which foreign evaluations carry the most weight with French specialists?

Comprehensive psycho-educational evaluations (full cognitive + achievement batteries with standardized scores) carry the most weight because they provide quantifiable data that French specialists can cross-reference with French norms. Speech-language therapy reports with standardized test results are similarly valuable. Subjective teacher observations and accommodation lists carry less diagnostic weight — French specialists need clinical evidence, not educational opinions.

Can I use the same sworn translator for all documents?

Yes, and this is actually preferable. A single translator who handles your complete file develops familiarity with your child's terminology, diagnostic language, and clinical history, producing more consistent translations. Request a translator with medical or educational document experience — technical accuracy matters more than literary quality.

What if my child's home country diagnosis doesn't exist in the French system?

Some diagnostic categories don't map cleanly. Sensory Processing Disorder, for example, is not a standalone diagnosis in France — it must be documented as part of a broader condition (autism, dyspraxia). Similarly, the US category "Emotional Disturbance" doesn't have a direct French equivalent. In these cases, the French specialist will reframe the presentation into the closest French category that unlocks the appropriate support pathway. This is exactly why presenting to a French specialist is essential — it's not just translation, it's diagnostic reframing.

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