Other educational activities

Engelska (ENG)

Other educational activities are childcare for children between the ages of 1 and 12.

Other educational activities are voluntary. The objective is partly to make it possible for parents to combine parenthood with working, and partly to offer stimulating and developing activities to the children.

There are four different kinds of other educational activities:

• educational care
• care during times of the day that preschool or a recreation centre is not offered
• open preschool
• open recreation activities

Educational care

Educational care can be offered to parents instead of preschool or a recreation centre. Educational care can be offered in the educators’ own homes, in other premises or in different multifamily solutions.

According to the Education Act, the child groups must have an appropriate composition and size and the premises must be functional for this purpose. There must also be staff with such training or experience that the children’s needs for care and good educational activities can be met. Activities shall be based on each child’s needs and be structured so that they promote all-round contacts and social interaction.

Who can operate educational care?

Educational care can be operated under municipal or private direction. The municipality must strive to offer other educational care instead of preschool or a recreation centre if the child’s guardian so requests.

Fees

The municipalities may charge a reasonable fee for a place in educational care. Today, all municipalities use a system with a fee ceiling for childcare. The fee ceiling means an upper limit is set for how high the fee can be for different families and is determined based on the parents’ income. The fee ceiling also applies to educational care, private as well as municipal.

Care during times that preschool or a recreation centre is not offered

Care during times of the day that preschool or a recreation centre is not offered can be offered evenings, nights or weekends, for example.

The municipality must strive to offer care for children during the time that preschool or a recreation centre is not offered to the extent necessary considering the parents’ employment and the family’s situation otherwise.

Open preschool

Open preschool is for children who are not registered in preschool. A parent or another adult must accompany the child to open preschool. Open preschool offers children an educational activity in a group together with the adults who accompany them. At the same time, the adults have the opportunity of social interaction. The children are not registered. The parents decide if and how much the child participates.

Open recreation activities

Open recreation activities are for 10-12 year-olds who do not need the care and supervision provided at recreation centres or in educational care. The families decide when and how often the children will participate. The open recreation activities are often coordinated with the school and recreation centre and/or the municipality’s other recreation activities for children and adolescents.