Children from the end of parental leave until they start pre-primary education. A place granted this way runs until the end of July of the year the child starts pre-primary education.
- The rule
- Submit your application at least four months before the date you would like your child to start.
- Apply through
- eVaka, the city's early childhood education service. A child without a Finnish personal identity code applies on paper instead.
- When you hear back
- Espoo decides about a month before the start date. The decision arrives in eVaka, and by post in some cases.
- Where the rule comes from
- Act on Early Childhood Education and Care (540/2018), section 17 — four months, or two weeks where the need could not be anticipated.
If a job or a study place came up and you could not have known in advance
It applies only if all of this is true:
- You have become employed, or got a place to study or train, and could not anticipate it.
- Your child urgently needs a place because of that — this route is not a shortcut for a start date you have known about for months.
- You apply as soon as you can, and at the latest two weeks before the place is needed.
Espoo's own wording is that a place can be granted quicker in these cases. It is still an application, decided by the city; the shorter deadline does not reserve a place at any particular centre.