Application Processing Schedule

All early childhood education and care applications are processed by the early childhood education and care service coordination team. The team will contact the guardian during the processing if needed. If you want to edit your application, please contact service coordination: tel. 08 558 45300 (on weekdays 9.00-12.00) or e-mail varhaiskasvatus@ouka.fi. 

If you have filled in an electronic form in eVaka, you can edit the form yourself if it has not yet been taken into processing.  

The processing time is four months. If the need for care is sudden due to work or studies, the processing time is two weeks. 

The schedule for applications for Spring 2024:

January 

Preschool applications are to be sent 8.-21.1.2024. Siblings of the child starting preschool should also apply for places if they wish to start daycare in the same facility. 

5-year-old children who participate in extended 2-year preschool and already started in 2022, do not need to apply for preschool places, as they already have one. If the guardians wish to transfer the child, for example due to a move, they should apply for a new place in the new area.  

February 

Planning of Fall preschool groups begins.  

All children are granted a preschool place in their neighborhood bearing in mind their possible future schools. The neighborhood is determined based on the family’s official home address. 

Guardians are entitled to apply for a preschool place from a facility outside of their neighborhood. The applications outside the family’s neighborhood are processed after all the applications of the people in the neighborhood have been processed. If there is room in the groups, places in these facilities can be granted.

March 

All new preschool children are notified of their preschool places by the end of March. 

March, April, and May 

New applications and transfer applications are processed in March, April, and May. There are many transfer applications each year, especially in daycares in areas with a lot of children. Not all wishes can be fulfilled. Children who need to be transported and who have difficult and long journeys are a priority in decision-making on transfer applications.

May

Decisions on children who start early childhood education in August are made and sent to the families in May or June if the application was made in time (four months before the starting time).