Early education and care is offered in municipal or private daycare, in family daycare or in playgroup club activities. Parents should apply for daycare four months prior to the need for care.
Education Division is responsible for Finnish- and Swedis-language daycare and preschool education.
Apply for early childhood education on Edlevo online service
Apply for a place for your child in the municipal early childhood education via the Edlevo e-service.
How the process works
Sign in to the Edlevo e-service mobile app or on your browser at hel.fi/vakapalvelu. The app is available on Google Play and the App Store. Sign in to the service by using suomi.fi e-Identification.
By signing in to the e-service, you give consent for use of the e-service and to be informed of decisions electronically. To open PDF files on a mobile device, you will need a PDF reader application. Alternatively, you can use paper-based services.
When filling in an application on Edlevo, first click the 'Area' menu and choose either a Finnish-language early childhood area, or 'svensk småbarnspedagogik' if you want early childhood education in Swedish. This way the daycare centres in that area will appears in the 'Unit' menu. The abbreviation 'PK' means a Finnish-language daycare centre, päiväkoti and 'DH' a Swedish-language daycare centre, daghem.
Once you have submitted your application, you can edit it until it is taken in for processing. In this phase, the status of your application in Edlevo is 'Awaiting handling from the municipality'. The application will be taken in for processing around three months before your desired start date or sooner in urgent cases.
Once your application has been taken in for processing, the status of the application in Edlevo will be 'In queue'. At this point, you can no longer edit the application.
The application will then be processed according to the grounds for granting places in early childhood education.
The decision on your early childhood education place is based on your desired start date and, where possible, the options you have chosen.
Once the decision on your child's place is ready, you will receive an email. You can view the decision on your the browser at www.hel.fi/vakapalvelu or on the Edlevo mobile app available in your app store.
Processing time
The processing time of an application is up to 4 months, unless you indicate a later start date for the service. Applications are taken into processing about 2 months before the desired start date.
Validity period
The application is valid for 12 months from the date it was submitted.
We will deliver any decisions on fees onto the Edlevo e-service to the parent or guardian who submitted the application.
Additional information
You can submit an application for early childhood education 12 months before the desired start date, at the earliest.
You can also apply for a place in early childhood education if you live outside of Helsinki, on the condition that your family must be officially living in Helsinki by the time the early childhood education starts.