How to Apply to the MDPH in English: A Guide for Expat Families in France

The MDPH application form is 20 pages long, written entirely in formal French, and crammed with administrative terminology that even Google Translate struggles to render accurately. For an expat parent already managing relocation stress, school enrollment, and a child who needs support, it's a brutal introduction to French bureaucracy.

This guide walks through the MDPH dossier process in plain English — what documents you need, how each section works, and what the evaluating committee is actually looking for when they read your file.

What the MDPH Is and Why It Controls Everything

The Maison Départementale des Personnes Handicapées (MDPH) is the single government agency that allocates all disability-related support in France. If you want your child to receive a classroom aide (AESH), a specialized school placement (ULIS), or formal pedagogical accommodations backed by legal force, the request goes through the MDPH. There are 101 MDPH offices — one per département — and you file with the office in the département where your child is enrolled in school.

The key distinction from Anglo-Saxon systems: the school cannot grant these resources independently. Until the MDPH issues a decision, the school has no legal authority to assign a dedicated aide or mandate a specialist class.

The Three Core Components of the Dossier

A complete MDPH application requires three categories of documents working together:

1. The Administrative Form (Cerfa 15692-01) This is the main 20-page application document. It covers everything: the nature of the disability, the child's daily functional limitations, all current therapies and medical care, what specifically you are requesting (human aid, financial aid, specialized equipment, school placement), and the Projet de Vie — the "life plan" narrative section that carries the most weight with evaluators.

2. The Medical Certificate (Cerfa 15695-01) This form must be completed by a French-registered doctor and must be dated within six months of your application submission. It documents the medical diagnosis and the clinical justification for the support requested. The school cannot fill this in — it must come from a qualified physician.

3. The GEVA-Sco For children already enrolled in a French school, the school's educational team completes a standardized assessment document called the GEVA-Sco (Guide d'évaluation des besoins de compensation en matière de scolarisation). It describes the child's academic situation, what adaptations have already been tried, and what ongoing challenges remain. The school handles this component, but parents should request a copy and review it before submission.

How to Get a French Doctor to Complete the Medical Certificate

This is where many expat families get stuck. The Cerfa 15695-01 must be completed by a médecin traitant (GP) or specialist registered in France. Your foreign child's existing medical history — US psychological evaluations, British EHCP, Australian assessments — has no direct legal standing, but it is critical evidence.

The process:

1. Register your child with a French GP as soon as possible after arrival.
2. Have key diagnostic documents translated by a traducteur assermenté (a sworn, court-certified translator). The MDPH will reject any documents that are not in French.
3. Present the certified translations to the French doctor alongside the original documents.
4. The doctor uses this history to support and complete the Cerfa 15695-01.

For complex conditions, you will likely also need a relevant specialist — a neuropediatric assessment, an orthophoniste (speech-language pathologist) report, or a psychomotricien evaluation. Major expat hubs (Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, Toulouse) have bilingual specialists who understand how to translate foreign diagnostic frameworks into French administrative terminology.

Filling In the Cerfa 15692-01: Section by Section

The form is long, but its structure is logical once you understand what each section is asking:

Identity and household information — Straightforward biographical data about your child and your family. Expats can include their nationality; French citizenship is not required to access MDPH support.

Current situation — Where the child is enrolled, what grade, current therapies, current accommodations in place.

Functional limitations — This section describes how the disability affects daily life across multiple domains: communication, self-care, mobility, relationships, schoolwork. Be specific. Vague answers weaken the dossier.

Requested supports — Tick all that apply: AESH human aide, financial allowance (AEEH), specialized equipment, ULIS class placement, IME or SESSAD referral.

The Projet de Vie — An open-ended narrative. This section is examined in detail later in this post.

The Projet de Vie: The Document That Decides Everything

The Projet de Vie ("life project") is an open-text narrative that sits within the Cerfa 15692-01. The evaluation committee — the EPE (Équipe Pluridisciplinaire d'Évaluation) — almost never meets the child in person. They make their recommendation based on the written dossier. The Projet de Vie is the section where you give them a complete picture of your child's daily reality.

Three things must be in it:

Functional impact — Not a list of diagnoses, but a description of how the disability plays out hour by hour. How does your child's condition affect their ability to sit in a classroom, communicate with teachers, manage a lunch break, navigate transitions between subjects?

Family retentissement — The impact on the family unit. Sleep disruption. Career changes a parent made to provide care. Private therapy costs the family is currently bearing. The committee uses this to gauge the severity of the need.

Specific requests — Be explicit. If you want an individual AESH (not mutualized), say so and explain why. If you need adapted IT equipment, specify the type. Vague requests receive vague allocations.

The Projet de Vie must be written in French. For expat families without strong written French, this is often the point where errors are made — either the language is too formal and stiff (clearly machine-translated), or the content is insufficient because parents didn't know what the committee expects to read.

What Happens After Submission

After the dossier is submitted and acknowledged as complete, the formal processing clock starts. The MDPH has four months to issue a decision. In practice, wait times in Île-de-France and other high-demand départements extend to 12–18 months due to staffing shortages at MDPH offices.

During this period, the EPE reviews the dossier and formulates a proposal. That proposal goes to the CDAPH (Commission des Droits et de l'Autonomie des Personnes Handicapées), the decision-making committee. The CDAPH issues a formal notification — either approving the requested supports, approving partial supports, or refusing.

If four months pass with no decision and no acknowledgment of receipt, that silence constitutes a legal rejection under French administrative law. At that point, you must file a RAPO (Recours Administratif Préalable Obligatoire) — a formal administrative appeal — within two months. Waiting passively beyond that window closes your right to challenge the silence.

Common Mistakes That Delay Applications

Submitting foreign-language documents without certified translation. The MDPH will return the dossier immediately.

A medical certificate that is more than six months old. It will be rejected as invalid.

An incomplete Projet de Vie. If evaluators cannot understand the functional severity of the child's condition, they will recommend the minimum support level.

Requesting an AESH without specifying individual vs. mutualized. Mutualized means the aide divides their time across several students. If your child needs continuous 1-on-1 support, you must explicitly request AESH-individuel and justify why.

Not getting the GEVA-Sco from the school before submission. The school must complete this. If it's missing, the dossier is incomplete.

The France Special Education Blueprint includes annotated guidance on every section of the Cerfa 15692-01, templates for writing an effective Projet de Vie in French, and a pre-submission checklist to ensure nothing is missing before you post the dossier.

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