Applying for municipal early childhood education

You can apply for a place in municipal early childhood education via our electronic eVaka service. You can have up to three application preferences. Each of the family’s children must have a separate application for a place in early childhood education. You can use your application for a place in municipal early childhood education to apply for both a place in municipal early childhood education and a place in a service voucher day care centre.

Photo: Vessi Hämäläinen

You can apply for a place in municipal early childhood education provided at a day care centre, group family day care centre, shift day care centre or family day care.

How to apply for a place in early childhood education

Fill in an application for a place in early childhood education for your child in the electronic eVaka service at www.espoonvarhaiskasvatus.fi(external link, opens in a new window). The site requires strong authentication, such as online banking credentials. If you want, you can also use the map view of the service to peruse the early childhood education units located in your area without logging in to the site. The recommended browser is Chrome.

In the system, you can have up to one valid application for a place in early childhood education and one club application or pre-primary education application per child. If you want, you can apply for a place in a municipal club or a place in private early childhood education at the same time while your application for a place in early childhood education is valid. More information about applying to clubs is available here. More information about applying for a place in private early childhood education and care is available here.

You need to fill in separate applications for a place in early childhood education for each child. The child for whom you are applying for needs to have a Finnish personal identity code or you cannot make the application electronically. If your child does not have a Finnish personal identity code or you do not have online banking credentials, you can submit the application in paper form. In this case, you need to contact Early Childhood Education Service Guidance (the contact information is at the end of this page).

In the application, indicate when the need for early childhood education begins, as well as your preferences concerning the place in early childhood education. Select your preferred day care centre, group family day care centre or shift day care centre for your application. You apply for a place in family day care by selecting from the menu your preferred family day care area in Espoo. You can have up to three application preferences in the same application.

If, during the application process, you are already aware that your child may need support in relation to growth, development or learning, please mention this in the application. It is important that you inform us about this as that helps us take the matter into account when granting the place in early childhood education. This way, we can ensure that early childhood education can provide your child with the best possible support.

A place in early childhood education is granted until the end of July of the year when the child starts pre-primary education. If your child who is starting pre-primary education also requires early childhood education in addition to pre-primary education in the mornings before pre-primary education or in the afternoons once pre-primary education is over, for example, use the same application for applying for it. More information about early childhood education related to pre-primary education is available here.

Early childhood education is subject to a fee and the fees are affected by, for example, the family’s income and the child’s time in early childhood education. Read more about the fees of early childhood education here. In Espoo five-year-old children can participate in twenty hours of free early childhood education per week starting in August of the year when the child turns five. More information about five-year-olds’ free early childhood education is available here.

Did you know that you can use your application for a place in municipal early childhood education to apply for a place in a service voucher day care centre at the same time? This means that you can have both municipal early childhood education units and service voucher day care centres as your application preference. In service voucher day care centres, the fees are the same or at most EUR 50 a month higher than in municipal early childhood education. Read more about the service voucher for early childhood education here. More information about how to apply to a service voucher day care centre is available here.

Applying for shift care

If you work in shifts or study in the evenings or at weekends, you can apply for a place in a shift day care centre for your child. In addition to early childhood education during the day, shift day care centres provide care in the evenings, at night and at weekends. Read more about shift care here.

If your child needs shift care, select 1–3 shift day care centres as your application preferences in your application. A list of shift day care centres is available here. You can also see the locations of all shift day care centres in the map service of eVaka here.(external link, opens in a new window) In this case, only select the evening and shift care units for viewing. The map can be viewed without logging in.

You application must also include as an appendix a certificate showing that you need the shift care due to work or studies. A certificate is needed from all of the child’s guardians who live in the same household.

Application and processing times

Submit your application for a place in municipal early childhood education at least four months before the date you would like your child to start attending early childhood education.

If anticipating the starting date is not possible and your child urgently needs a place in early childhood education, a place can be granted quicker.

Becoming employed or a student unexpectedly are acceptable reasons for a shorter application processing time. In this case, apply for a place in early childhood education as soon as possible but at least two weeks before the need for early childhood education starts. You must attach to the application a certificate of being employed or a student.

We decide on the child’s place in early childhood education about a month before the start of early childhood education, in accordance with the Act on Early Childhood Education and Care (processing time for applications is four months or two weeks). Once the decision has been made, the application is removed from the electronic customer system.

In addition to municipal early childhood education, the same application and processing times are observed in the outsourced day care centres and the service voucher day care centres approved by the City of Espoo.

Families moving to Espoo

The move does not directly entitle an applicant to a shorter (two weeks) processing time for an application for a place in early childhood education; the processing time is usually four months in accordance with the Act on Early Childhood Education and Care. However, a place in early childhood education can be arranged earlier if the situation allows it in terms of applicants and places.

If you are moving to Espoo and already know the date of your move, you can submit your application before the move.

If you are moving from within the Helsinki Metropolitan Area (Helsinki, Vantaa, Kauniainen), your child can continue at the current municipal early childhood education unit until the end of the autumn or spring term following the move, but no further.

Families moving away from Espoo

When a family will be moving within the Helsinki Metropolitan Area (Helsinki, Vantaa, Kauniainen), the child can continue at the current municipal early childhood education unit until the end of the autumn or spring term following the move, but no further. A child in pre-primary education can continue at the same unit until the end of the education, or the child can be transferred to pre-primary education in the new municipality of residence. 

If the family will be moving to some other municipality, the early childhood education place or pre-primary education place must be terminated. You can do this through the eVaka service.

Editing or withdrawing your application

You can edit or withdraw your application in eVaka as long as the application is not being processed yet. Only the guardian who submitted the application can edit or withdraw it.

Once the application is being processed, it can only be changed by contacting Early Childhood Education Service Guidance. You can also withdraw the application by sending an email to Early Childhood Education Service Guidance, after which our service instructor will contact you.

You can find the contact information of Early Childhood Education Service Guidance at the end of this page.

Accepting the place

Once you have been granted a place in early childhood education, the decision will be sent to you via the eVaka service at www.espoonvarhaiskasvatus.fi(external link, opens in a new window).

If you have activated the Suomi.fi service in a municipal or official service, the decision will also be sent to you through it. If you are not using the Suomi.fi service, we will send the decision to you by post. If the guardians live at the same address, we will send the decision to the guardian who submitted the application. If the guardians live at different addresses, we will send the decision to both guardians separately.

Accept or reject the place within 14 days of the date of the decision. When you are accepting the place offered, you can still postpone the start of early childhood education by two weeks, if necessary.

If you reject the place in early childhood education offered to your child, your application will no longer be valid. However, you can submit a new application. Please note that in this case we will observe the aforementioned four-month processing time when arranging the new place.

If you accept the place in early childhood education granted to your child, the early childhood education unit your child will attend will contact you so that you can discuss the practical matters related to your child starting early childhood education. If you want, you can also contact the unit yourself.

Changing the place in early childhood education

If your child already has a place in municipal early childhood education in Espoo and you want to apply for another place in municipal early childhood education or a place in an outsourced day care centre or in a service voucher day care centre for your child, you must submit a new application for a place in early childhood education in the eVaka service. The new application serves as a transfer application.

If you apply for a place in an outsourced day care centre or a service voucher day care centre, always check the application procedure here.

The transfer application is valid for one year from its date of arrival. The transfer application has no processing time; transfers are decided on if the situation allows it in terms of applicants and places.

You can apply for a transfer only if your child already has a place in the same form of activity (club, early childhood education, pre-primary education or instruction preparing for basic education). For example, if your child has a place in a club, you can apply for a transfer to another club. However, if your child has a place in a club but you are applying for a place in a day care centre, this is considered a new application.

If you terminate your child’s place in early childhood education, the transfer application will also be deleted. You can then submit a new application, in which case the processing time pursuant to the Act on Early Childhood Education and Care will be observed.

Guidelines for decision-making in early childhood education

Espoo has certain principles according to which children are appointed a place in early childhood education.

Places in early childhood education are assigned within realms of possibility according to the guardians’ wishes. When there are more applicants to an early childhood education unit than there are available places, the placement of the children observes the following principles:

  • Need for early childhood education and care: Only children who, due to their guardian’s work or studies, need early childhood education and care outside the hours 6.30–18.00 are placed in early childhood education groups that operate in the evenings or round the clock.
  • Child-specific special reasons: The placement is based on a statement provided by the Child Welfare Services, family worker, child health clinic, speech therapist, doctor or some other expert or a support need assessed by early childhood education.
  • Sibling relationships: The goal is to place siblings in the same early childhood education unit, if the family does not express other wishes.
  • Means of communication: The guardians’ possibilities for bringing the child to early childhood education and care is determined in the placement process (public transport or own car, transport directions).
  • When deciding on children’s places in early childhood education, the starting point is also to form functional child groups and ensure the appropriate use of the care premises. The decision-maker will apply his/her discretion while observing the overall situation of early childhood education.
  • If the guardians wish to change the existing place their child has in early childhood education to another, the above guidelines are always observed in the assignment of the new place in early childhood education.

Early childhood education decisions are done until the end of July of the year when the child starts pre-primary education.

Any questions about applying for a place in early childhood education?

If you need help with applying for a place in early childhood education or matters related to childcare allowances, you can contact our service guidance. The contact information can be found below. More information on service guidance is available here.

You can also watch the attached video on how to fill in an application for a place in early childhood education.

Information and instructions for using eVaka are available here.

Contact information

Finnish early childhood education service guidance

+358 9 81631000Mailing address PL 3125 02070 Espoon kaupunki

Contact information

Mondays 9-13 am
Tuesdays 9-13 am 
Wednesdays 9-13 am
Thursdays 13-16 pm
Fridays 9-13 am

The service guidance team gives families advice on how to apply for early childhood education and on matters related to childcare allowances.

Swedish-language early childhood education service guidance

+358 9 81627600Postal address PB 3125 02070 Esbo stad

Telephone guidance hours:
Monday 9-11 am and 12-14 pm
Tuesday  13-16 pm
Wednesday 9-11 am and 12-14 pm
Friday 9–12 am

The service guidance team gives families advice on how to apply for Swedish-language early childhood education and on matters related to childcare allowances.

Early childhood education fees

+358 9 81627400The income statement with the necessary attachments can be sent to: Espoon Kaupunki, Talousyksikkö, Varhaiskasvatuksen laskutus, PL 30, 02070 Espoon kaupunki.

Contact information
Monday, Wednesday and Thursday  9-12 

There are 5 options to choose from:

1. Swedish-language day care
2. Leppävaara
3. Tapiola and Matinkylä-Olari
4. Espoonlahti
5. Espoo Centre