A child with a disability or other support needs can be provided with early childhood education services in a daycare centre, family daycare or playground.
Early childhood education is subject to a fee. The fee is determined based on the size, service needs and income of the family. For more information on daycare centres, please contact service guidance for early childhood education.
Read more about early childhood education
Learn how early childhood education fees are determined
See the contact details of service guidance for early childhood education and pre-primary education
Children are entitled to receive the support and assistive devices that they need in order to participate in early childhood education on the basis of their support needs. These include, for example:
- arrangements for mobility and other physical functions, such as wheelchair ramps and handrails
- assistive devices for communication, vision, hearing, mobility or other physical needs, such as toys and digital applications that support communication.
Your child can also be provided with the support of an assistant at daycare, if necessary.
Travel to daycare
Guardians are responsible for transporting their child to early childhood education. For a justified reason, the guardians of a child participating in early childhood education in Helsinki may apply for transport for their child. We always consider applications on a case-by-case basis when arranging transport.
Caring for children at home
Instead of having your child participate in municipal or private early childhood education or rehabilitative early childhood education, you can take care of them at home with child home care allowance, private day care allowance or flexible care allowance.
Read more about Kela's benefits for families(Link leads to external service)
The parent of a child with a particularly serious illness or disability may also be entitled to special care allowance. Special care allowance is compensation for loss of earnings in cases where the guardian of a child under 16 cannot work because they have to take part in the care or rehabilitation of the child.
Special care allowance is not paid if you receive a salary or a daily allowance paid by Kela, such as pregnancy allowance, special pregnancy allowance, paternity allowance, parental allowance or sickness allowance, during your child’s care. If you receive special care allowance, you cannot receive unemployment allowance or labour market subsidy at the same time.
You are not entitled to special care allowance if your child is attending early childhood education or school outside the home during the day. An exception is when the parent is on standby at home during a school or early childhood education pilot based on the assessment of the attending physician.
Read more about special care allowance on Kela’s website(Link leads to external service)