Early childhood education fees

The monthly client fee for municipal and purchased service early childhood education ranges from EUR 0 to EUR 295 per child. The fee varies according to factors such as the size and income of the family as well as how much time the child spends in early childhood education.

Photo: Taru Turpeinen

The client fees for municipal early childhood education are based on the Act on Client Fees in Early Childhood Education and Care (1503/2016). The client fees for municipal and purchased service early childhood education are calculated as a percentage of the family’s gross income. The fee ranges from €0 to €295 per child per month.

The amount of the fee varies according to factors such as income, the size of the family and the agreed time that the child spends in early childhood education. In addition, there is a sibling discount if several children in the same family attend early childhood education and care.

The income limits on which the early childhood education fee is based are reviewed at least every two years. The next index adjustment will be made on 1 August 2024. Client fees are also reviewed if there are any changes to the valid regulations or decisions.

On this page, we will tell you about the client fees for municipal and purchased service early childhood education and the key factors affecting the fees.

If you need information about fees for service voucher day care centres, you can read more on the topic here. If you want to learn more about client fees in private early childhood education, contact the service provider directly.

Determination of the client fee

The client fees for early childhood education are calculated as a percentage of the family’s gross income. The maximum fee is €295 per child per month. When a child is in early childhood education for at least 35 hours a week, the client fee is 10.7% of the amount of the family’s income that exceeds the specified minimum gross income limit.

If your family’s income exceeds the maximum gross income limit, you will pay the highest possible client fee. If the income is lower than the minimum gross income limit, no fee is collected. Client fees of less than €28/month are not collected at all.

You can check the table below for the minimum and maximum gross earnings limits for families in your family size range.

Table 1. Determination of the client fee for early childhood education when the child is in early childhood education for at least 35 hours/week

Family size	Minimum gross income limit €/month	Fee percentage	Gross income limit for the highest fee €/month
2	3 874	10,7	6 627
3	4 998	10,7	7 751
4	5 675	10,7	8 428
5	6 353	10,7	9 106
6	7 028	10,7	9 781

The income limit for families with more than six persons is increased for each subsequent underage child by €262 per month.

You can calculate your child’s early childhood education fee by using the following formula.

An example of calculating the client fee for early childhood education:

The family size is three persons and the total gross income of the family is €6,000/month.
€6,000–4,998 (minimum gross income from the table above) = €1,002.
€1,002 x 0.107 (fee percentage 10.7%) = €107.21/month is the early childhood education client fee for the youngest child when they are in early childhood education at least 35h/week.

The table below shows how the child’s time in early childhood education affects the client fee. When the child is in early childhood education at least 35 hours a week, the family pays the full client fee determined according to their income and family size. If the child is in early childhood education for less than 35 hours a week, the family pays 60% or 80% of the full client fee, depending on the number of hours needed.

Table 2. The effect of the child’s early childhood education time on client fees until 31 July 2024

Time in early childhood education (h/week)	The impact of early childhood education time on the client fee
At least 35 h	100 %
More than 25 h and less than 35 h	80 %
No more than 25 h	60 %

Free early childhood education for five-year-olds, pre-primary education and preparatory instruction

I In Espoo, children can attend free early childhood education on weekdays for four hours a day in the year that they turn five. t is provided from the beginning of August to the end of July the following year (1.8.-31.7.). More information about five-year-olds’ free early childhood education is available here.

Pre-primary education begins in August of the year in which the child turns 6. Pre-primary education (4 hours/day) and instruction preparing children of pre-primary education age for basic education (5 hours/day) are free for the school year of pre-primary education (you can check the dates of the school year here). Preparatory instruction is intended for children with an immigrant background who need support with learning Finnish. Read more about preparatory instruction here.

If your child needs other early childhood education in addition to free hours, the fee for them will depend on the number of weekly hours needed. The fee is charged according to the table below. The free portion is automatically taken into account in the client fee.

Table 3. Client fees for early childhood education in addition to free hours

Total weekly hours of early childhood education	From the full client fee forearly childhood education determined according to income and family size
at least 25 h	80%
more than 15 h but less than 25 h	60%
no more than 15 h	35%

Please note that the free hours of pre-primary education and preparatory instruction end in the spring at the end of week 22 when the term of early childhood education and preparatory instruction ends! If your child needs early childhood education during the summer, the fees are determined according to Tables 1 and 2.

Family size

The size of the family affects the amount of the early childhood education fee. Family size includes all married individuals or those living in a relationship resembling marriage in the same household and their underage children living in the same household.

Sibling discount

A sibling discount is available in municipal and purchased service early childhood education.

The maximum fee for the youngest child can be up to €295/month.
The fee for the second child is a maximum of 40% of the fee for the youngest child (a maximum of €118/month).
The fee for other children in the family is 20% of the fee for the youngest child (a maximum of €59/month).

Siblings’ early childhood education fees are calculated from the client fee that would be paid for the youngest child if they attended early childhood education for at least 35 hours a week.

Income

The family’s income affects the amount of the client fee. We take into account the income of everyone included in the family size when calculating the client fee. Children’s income will also be taken into account.

The following are considered income

taxable earned income (holiday bonus added to earned income) and pension income
taxable income from capital
tax-exempt income
Kela benefits, such as parental allowance, flexible and partial care allowance, basic unemployment allowance and sickness allowance

The following are not considered income

child home care allowance
child benefit
benefit pursuant to the Disability Benefits Act
child increase pursuant to the National Pensions Act
housing allowance
medical and examination costs under accident insurance
conscript’s allowance
front veteran’s supplement
financial aid for students, adult education allowance
activity pay and travel costs paid in the form of social assistance
maintenance allowance according to the Act on the Rehabilitation Benefits and Rehabilitation Allowance Granted by the Social Insurance Institution
maintenance allowance according to the Act on Public Employment and Business Service
scholarships and other similar financial grants for studying, or reimbursement for costs of foster care

Income is reduced by child support payments for children living at a different address.

The early childhood education fee is calculated based on the income statement provided by the family. The income declaration is not needed if the family agrees to pay the highest fee. We automatically charge the highest client fee if some or all of the income information is missing.

Report your income information by submitting an income statement in eVaka. You must submit a statement on your income at least once a year and whenever your income changes. We will check the income information from the Incomes Register with the client’s consent. The consent is one-off, so you must give your consent again each time you submit a new income statement.

The eVaka service automatically sends reminder messages about the end of the validity of the income information. If you receive such a reminder from the service, submit a new income statement.

How to submit an income statement

Provide your income information to the early childhood education and care unit through the eVaka service.
Log in to eVaka at www.espoonvarhaiskasvatus.fi(external link, opens in a new window) and verify your identity using strong authentication such as your online banking credentials.
The child’s guardian(s) and their spouse must identify themselves and submit an income statement for themselves if they live in the same household. If necessary, the guardian must provide the income information of the children living in the same household (information concerning child support, etc.).
Once your are logged in, click on your own name to make the income statement.
In the income statement, you can consent to having your income information checked from the Incomes Register if the information is available from the register. If you do not grant permission to use the Incomes Register, you must submit information about your income as a separate appendix to the eVaka income statement.
If you receive entrepreneurial income or have income from capital, always submit the appendices to them together with the income statement.
If your earnings are irregular, please indicate in the additional information field on the form where your earnings come from. In the additional information field, you can provide other information that may be relevant to the processing of your income information.
If necessary, you can also make an income statement using a paper form. You can find the income statement form here. You can also request an income statement form from your child’s early childhood education unit.
You can submit the income statement and the necessary appendices to your child’s early childhood education unit or send them to: Espoon kaupunki, Talousyksikkö, Varhaiskasvatuksen laskutus, PL 30, 02070 Espoon kaupunki.

The client fee for early childhood education is valid until further notice. If your family’s income changes significantly (+/- 10%) or your family size changes, please report the change without delay. Income information is reported by submitting a new income statement in eVaka. If your family’s income has gone up and you as a guardian have not reported it, we will charge the increased fee retroactively.

You can report changes in family size to your child’s early childhood education unit. If you want, you can also report a change in the family size by submitting a new income statement in eVaka and recording in it that the family size has changed.

The City of Espoo has the right to verify families’ information in the Population Information Register, from Kela and other authorities in accordance with Section 17 of the Act on Client Fees in Early Childhood Education and Care (1503/2016).

Please note that the client fee cannot be reduced retroactively. We can only take reduced income into account in the client fee from the beginning of the calendar month preceding the notification of reduced income, but no earlier.

Early childhood education time

The amount of time that the child needs to spend in early childhood education affects the amount of the client fee.

When your child starts early childhood education, make an agreement on the child’s early childhood education time with the child’s early childhood education unit. The client fee for early childhood education is based on the average weekly early childhood education time recorded in this agreement.

Regular weekly and daily attendance as well as possible days of absence are recorded in the agreement. The child’s average weekly early childhood education time is calculated based on the monthly early childhood education time. In calculating the average number of hours per week, we take into account any days of absence, which are recorded in the agreement concerning the child’s early childhood education time.

The family’s holiday periods (for example, summer, autumn, Christmas and winter holidays) and the child’ occasional absences are not included in the regular early childhood education time, and the child’s absence due to a holiday does not affect the client fee for early childhood education.

The agreement on the child’s early childhood education time is valid until further notice. Amendments to the agreement may be made at intervals of no more than 3 months for justified reasons.

Guardians must make reservations for attendance in eVaka by 18:00 on Monday of the previous week. Please note that you can only make reservations within the hours specified in the agreement.

If your family needs to deviate from the early childhood education times specified in the agreement, please contact the director of your child’s early childhood education unit. You can ask them if temporarily deviating from the agreement would be possible.

July client fee

The early childhood education fee is charged for 11 months during the year when your child’s early childhood education attendance began in September of the previous year at the latest. In this case, July is a free month.

If your child’s early childhood education attendance began after September or as been on a hiatus, you will be charged for July. The fee is half of the client fee if your child is absent for the entire month of July. Please note! If your child attends early childhood education even for one day in July, you will be charged the entire monthly fee.

If you have reserved early childhood education for your child in July but the child does not use it and you do not remember to cancel the reservation by Thursday of week 24, we will charge you half of the normal monthly fee. If your client fee is €0/month, we will charge you €14.00.

The impact of absences on the client fee

The client fee will also be charged for days of absence, with the exception of the following situations

The fee is not charged if the child has been ill and therefore absent from early childhood education on all the days of activity during the calendar month. Notify the early childhood education unit of an absence due to an illness immediately after the illness has begun. Upon request, you must provide a doctor’s or nurse’s certificate of the sick absence. Please note that a child’s absence from early childhood education cannot be changed to a sick absence afterwards.
If your child has been ill and absent from early childhood education for at least 11 days of activity in a calendar month due to the illness, we will charge you half of the monthly fee. Notify the early childhood education unit of an absence due to an illness immediately after the illness has begun. Please note that an absence cannot be changed to a sick absence afterwards. Upon request, you must provide a doctor’s or nurse’s certificate of the sick absence.
If your child is absent from early childhood education on all days of the calendar month and the absence is not due to the child being ill, you will be charged half of the monthly client fee. If the child is present for even a single day, the entire monthly fee will be charged.

The effect of paternity or parental leave on early childhood education fees

No early childhood education fee is charged for a child for whom a daily parental allowance is paid if the child’s absence has been announced in advance, with the exception of one-off absences. An early childhood education fee is charged as normal for a one-off absence of up to 5 days.

On days of parental leave, the child cannot attend early childhood education. Parental leave does not affect the right of the other children in the family to participate in early childhood education or the client fee charged for them.

See instructions on how to report parental leave absences here.

Reduction of client fees or exemption from fees

It is possible to get a discount on the client fee for early childhood education or an exemption from the fee when certain conditions are met.

The reduction can be obtained on the basis of case-specific consideration. A reduction of fees or exemption from them may be granted, for example, when the family receives basic social assistance or when the family’s ability to pay is unexpectedly reduced due to things such as unemployment. In addition, an exemption from fees may be granted if early childhood education is provided as a support measure in open care in child welfare.

Here you can read more about how to apply for client fee reduction or exemption. Please note that before applying for a reduction or exemption, you must submit a new income statement in eVaka.

Invoicing and termination

You will be sent a decision on the amount of your child’s client fee within about a month after your child has started attending early childhood education. We will deliver the decision to the Suomi.fi service if you have used it in some municipal or official service. Otherwise, you will receive the decision by post.

The invoicing of early childhood education starts from the day when the child starts early childhood education in accordance with the early childhood education decision. If you end up not needing the place in early childhood education that you have accepted and you have not cancelled the place before the start date of early childhood education, we will charge you half of the monthly fee.

The client fees for early childhood education are invoiced retroactively. You will receive an invoice in the middle of the following month, and the due date of the invoice will be at the end of the invoicing month. As an example, the June fee for early childhood education will be invoiced in July. We will deliver the invoice to you in the Suomi.fi service, if you use the service. Otherwise, you will receive the invoice by post or e-invoice.

If your child no longer needs early childhood education, terminate their place in early childhood education. Make the termination in the eVaka service or using the form available from the child’s early childhood education unit. We hope that you will notify us of the termination as soon as possible, but at least 2 weeks before the end of the need for early childhood education. The invoicing of early childhood education fees ends on the last day of the agreement.

Inquiries

If you have questions about your child’s early childhood education time or if you want to report things such as a change in family size, please contact the director of your child’s early childhood education unit.

In matters related to the determination and invoicing of the early childhood education fee, you can contact the client fees service number. When you call the number, your questions will be answered by financial coordinators.