Applying for early childhood education

Submitting an application

Apply for early childhood education no later than 4 months before your child needs an early childhood education place. Applications for early childhood education can be submitted throughout the year. If your child needs an early childhood education place from August onwards, please submit the application in April at the latest.

In Vantaa, you can apply for early childhood education at municipal day care, private day care and family day care. Service vouchers are used in private early childhood education. You can apply for clubs using the club application.

Most daycare centers are primarily open between 6:00 and 17:15. There are also daycare centers in Vantaa that offer evening care and daycare centers that are open 24 hours a day, including on weekends. Family day care is offered between 7:30 and 16:30 (at most 9 hours/day) at the home of the childminder.

Early childhood education is also organized in the evenings, at night and during weekends for families whose children need it due to the guardians’ work or studies. The need for care is verified with a certificate provided by the employer or place of study. The certificate shall specify the guardians' work or study times.

The chosen early childhood education time can be used every day or only a few days per week, according to the family's needs. In municipal early childhood education, you can select the following as the early childhood education time:

0–20 hours,
20–25 hours,
25–35 hours,
or 35–50 hours per week

You can fill out the early childhood education application in the early childhood education online service, that is, the VaSa service. You log into the service through Suomi.fi identification. You will need online banking credentials, a mobile ID or certificate card for identification. After submitting the application, you can track its processing in the service. You can also edit the submitted application until the application period ends or until the application is taken for processing.

In the VaSa service, you can see your child’s applications and decisions. It is not yet possible to read old decisions in the service.

You can use the VaSa service through your mobile device’s browser or a separately downloaded mobile app. The app is found in app stores under the name CGI Vesa. The app is available in Finnish, Swedish, and English.

If you are not able to submit the application online, you can do it in paper form. Deliver the completed application to a Vantaa-info service point, any municipal daycare center, or send it to Early Childhood Education Services at the address:

Varhaiskasvatus, Varhaiskasvatushakemus, PL 1500, 01030 Vantaan kaupunki.

You can complete and print out the application in PDF form here:

Application for early childhood education (523023e)(pdf, 259.92 KB)

Log in to the VaSa service See the instructions with photos on the use of the VaSa service Would you like to enroll your child in pre-primary education? Read more here.

Sudden need for a place

If either of the child’s guardians suddenly becomes employed or gains a new study place, you must apply for the early childhood education place as soon as possible; however, at least two weeks before the child needs the care place.

Documentation on the guardians’ employment and studies shall be attached to the application. The unexpected situation must be apparent in the documents of one of the guardians.

The processing of the application and search for an early childhood education place only begin after the necessary appendices have been provided. At least 2 weeks will be reserved for searching for a place from the moment the necessary appendices are provided.

In the case of a sudden need for care, the family should be prepared for the early childhood education place to be further away than usual.

A sudden situation may be:

employment
a study place designated by the TE Office
receiving a study place through a cancelation/reserve place
a lay-off ends
or other similar situation

A sudden situation is not:

the end of parental leave
moving from another municipality

Families moving to Vantaa

Moving does not directly entitle you to the faster two-week processing time for an early childhood education application; the processing time is four months in accordance with the Act on Early Childhood Education and Care. If you are moving to Vantaa, please submit the application before moving.

If you are moving from one municipality to another within the metropolitan area (Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen), your child can continue in their old municipal early childhood education place until the end of the fall or spring following the move at most.

For private day care, you can inquire about a place yourself. Private daycare centers do not have a four-month processing time; you can get an early childhood education place faster there. The service voucher is available to all families permanently living in Vantaa.

Progress of the application processing

The service counselor will contact the family before a decision on the child’s early childhood education place is made. The service counselor will check the information provided in the application and ensure that the need for early childhood education still exists. In addition, the service counselor will tell the family about different options, the area’s situation regarding available places and the processing schedule.

When a child is placed in early childhood education, the decision-making takes into account the family’s wishes and overall situation, the free places and the principles governing the arrangement of early childhood education as decided by the Education and Learning Committee on February 15, 2022.

Siblings will be placed in the same place to the extent possible. All applications will be handled within four (4) months before the desired date of beginning.

The decision on an early childhood education place will be delivered to you online in the VaSa service. The decision will only be sent to you in paper form if you have separately requested it. The decision will also be visible in the Suomi.fi Messages service if you have taken it into use.

If you have listed a private service voucher daycare center or service voucher group family daycare center as your primary wish in the application, you will receive a decision on the service voucher.

For children starting early childhood education in August, decisions will be made in May. For children starting in other months, decisions are made about one month before starting.

A municipal early childhood education place must be accepted within 14 days of receiving notice of the decision. You can accept the place either in the VaSa service or by notifying the director of the child’s future daycare center.

Once you have accepted the place, the daycare center will contact you. You can agree to visit the child's future early childhood education place. When the child's early childhood education begins, you will agree on the child's early childhood education times with the daycare center staff.

If you have received a decision on a service voucher, please contact the private service voucher daycare and agree on your child’s early childhood education. Then accept your child’s service voucher either in the VaSa service or by notifying early childhood education service counseling.

The service voucher must be accepted within 14 days of receiving notice of the decision. If you choose a different private daycare center than the one mentioned in the decision, please contact early childhood education service counseling before accepting the service voucher.

Principles guiding the arrangement of early childhood education

Early childhood education places are assigned in accordance with the statutory application timelines. Places are granted according to the guardian’s/guardians’ preferences whenever possible. All options listed by the guardian in the application are considered equal during the decision-making process. When there are more applicants for a specific early childhood education place than available spots, the following guiding principles are applied:

priority is given to placing siblings of the same family in the same daycare center or family daycare.
known child-specific special needs. In these cases, the placement and required support measures are prepared in cooperation with the guardian(s), service counseling, the coordinating special education teacher for early childhood education, and any other relevant experts.
formation of functional child groups and appropriate use of available places.
transportation connections
lottery

In addition, the following factors related to the nature of the service are considered when there are more applicants than available places:

Swedish-language early childhood education

the guardians, or one of the guardians, speak(s) Swedish to the child
the child has previous experience with a Swedish-speaking environment.
a sibling is enrolled in Swedish-language early childhood education.

Swedish-language immersion

the child’s native language is a language other than Swedish
the child is five years old when early childhood education begins
the child’s sibling is in Swedish-language immersion education.

Early childhood education groups offering evening and round-the-clock care are available only to those children whose need for early childhood education, due to the guardians’ work or studies, takes place
- at a time other than 6:00–17:15 in Finnish-language early childhood education
- at a time other than 6:00–18:00 in Swedish-language early childhood education
the right to evening and round-the-clock care is based on the employer's or educational institution's certificate of working and/or study times delivered by the guardians
engaging in hobbies or supervising hobbies does not entitle the guardian to round-the-clock care, if it is not their work
after the need for round-the-clock care ends, a place in a daycare center that does not provide round-the-clock care will be arranged for the child as soon as possible
if the need for evening or round-the-clock care arises suddenly, and no place is immediately available, the child may be assigned to another early childhood education place with a two-week adjustment period. Evening and round-the-clock care will be arranged as soon as possible
Read more about evening and round-the-clock care

Transfer application

If the guardians wish to change the child’s current early childhood education place, a transfer application is to be prepared together with the daycare director, who submits the application on the guardian's/guardians’ behalf through the early childhood education customer system. For transfer applications, the following guiding principles are applied when assigning an early childhood education place:

in case the family moves to another locality, the transfer will be implemented as soon as possible if it is not possible for the family to continue in the current early childhood education place, for instance, due to travel connections
if the opening hours of the child’s current unit are insufficient, the transfer will be implemented as soon as possible
transfer applications for siblings are processed before other transfer applications
a transfer is pursued if the distance between the home and the early childhood education place is more than 1.5 km
as a last resort, a lottery is used as a guiding principle
transfer applications are processed twice a year, in connection with the August and January decision-making periods. Moreover, transfer applications are processed before handling new early childhood education applications
transfer applications must be submitted by March 31 for the August decision-making period and by August 31 for the January decision-making period
local transfers (less than 1.5 km) are carried out if there are available places after new applicants have been placed.

Applying for private early childhood education

You can apply for private early childhood education for your child by contacting the private daycare center or childminder.

If you are applying for private early childhood education for your child, you can apply for a service voucher to compensate for some of the early childhood education fees. Apply for a service voucher online in the VaSa service. When applying for a service voucher, use the same application that is used for applying for municipal early childhood education.

If you have received a decision on a service voucher, please contact the private service voucher daycare and agree on your child’s early childhood education. Then accept your child’s service voucher either in the VaSa service or by notifying early childhood education service counseling.

The service voucher must be accepted within 14 days of receiving notice of the decision. If you choose a different private daycare center than the one mentioned in the decision, please contact early childhood education service counseling before accepting the service voucher.

If the family wishes to switch from a private daycare center to a municipal daycare center, the early childhood education service counselor will submit the transfer application to the early childhood education customer system on the guardian's behalf. The application is processed in service counseling in accordance with the same process that is used for municipal transfer applications from one daycare center to another.

If you choose a private childminder, you can apply to Kela for private day care allowance.

Private early childhood education service voucher
Private day care allowance
Private daycare centers in Vantaa

Contacts related to the application

In matters related to applying for early childhood education, guidance is provided by centralized early childhood education service counseling. The service counselors are available Tues–Thurs at 9:00–12:00 by phone 09 839 50226 or in the Vakabotti chat, which you can find at the bottom right of the page. Please do not send personal information through the chat.

At other times, you can reach the service counselors by email: varhaiskasvatuksen.palveluohjaus@vantaa.fi

For questions related to the VaSa service, please contact VaSa support: varhaiskasvatuksen.vasapalvelu@vantaa.fi

For questions related to payment, please call the number 09 8392 2004 or send an email: varhaiskasvatuksen.asiakasmaksut@vantaa.fi

Feedback survey after a call

When you call us, you will receive a text message after your call. The text message has a link to a short feedback survey. You will receive the message immediately after the call, and it is sent by “Vantaa.”
Thank you for answering our survey! It will help us develop our services.

Processing of personal data in early childhood education

Additional information

Municipal and private daycare centers Family day care Private family day care Evening and round-the-clock care