Applying to clubs in early childhood education and care

The Finnish early childhood education in Espoo organises free-of-charge clubs for 2–5-year-old children who are being cared for at home. The club term begins in August and ends in late May. Attending a club is free of charge and has no effect on the child home care allowance. Children cannot attend a club and other early childhood education at the same time. Read more about clubs in early childhood education here.

The annual application period for the new club term is in March, but places that may become available can be applied for all year round. The decision to grant a place in a club is made for one term, which means that a new term always requires a new application. You can submit a club application even though the club term has already started; in this case, we can offer the child any place that may become available later. The applications are valid until the end of the club term.

Fill in the electronic club application in the eVaka service at www.espoonvarhaiskasvatus.fi(external link, opens in a new window) The service requires strong authentication, such as online banking credentials.

The club applications sent to us during the application period in March are processed in April. If all applicants cannot be admitted, the selection is made according to the selection criteria confirmed by the Education and Early Education Committee (provided later on this page).

Once a decision on a child’s place in a club has been made, the decision will be published in the eVaka service at www.espoonvarhaiskasvatus.fi(external link, opens in a new window). If you have activated the Suomi.fi service, you will also be informed of the decision there. If you are not using the Suomi.fi service, the decision will be sent by post. If the guardians live at the same address, the decision can be viewed by the guardian who made the application. When the guardians live at different addresses, we deliver the decision to both guardians separately.

You must accept or reject the club decision within 14 days of the date of the decision. If a child is granted a place in a club in the middle of the term, the child must start attending the club within two weeks of receiving the decision.

When applying for a place in a club for your child, you can also apply for a place in municipal or private early childhood education and care for your child. However, please note that a child can only have one valid club application at a time, but the application can have 1–3 application preferences. In addition to this application, the child can also have a valid early childhood education application. The guardian who submitted the application may edit the application or delete it if the application is not being processed yet.

If you have questions about the club application, you can contact Early Childhood Education Service Guidance. You can find the contact information at the end of this page.

The Education and Early Education Committee has decided the selection criteria for clubs. Children over the age of two may be selected to clubs with attention paid to the age structure of each club. If all applicants cannot be selected, the selection will be based on the following order of priority

1. Children who have already attended the club during the previous club term (the applications were submitted during the application period).
2. Children who have a sibling connection to the same club group (the applications were submitted during the application period).
3. Children who are waiving their place in day care (the applications were submitted during the application period).
4. Children whose applications do not contain any of the factors mentioned above (the applications were submitted during the application period).
5. Children whose applications were submitted outside of the application period are accepted in order of submission.

If all applicants of the same group cannot be admitted, the selection is based on a draw between the applicants.

If the primary application preference for a club is not realised, the possible secondary preference or any other potential place in a club is taken into account in accordance with the above selection criteria.