Accessibility
Every child in Denmark has a guaranteed legal right to a place in an ECEC setting. The municipalities are obliged to ensure ECEC provisions for all children between the ages 26 weeks and the start of primary school. All children have equal access to day-care.
ECEC participation is not compulsory for the children. However, the participation rate is among the highest in the EU.
Admission requirements and choice of ECEC institutions
The guidelines for admission to an ECEC setting are based on local conditions and needs. When determining the guidelines, the individual municipality may - within the framework of the guaranteed ECEC provision - consider factors such as siblings, composition of the group of children, geographical location of the ECEC setting and children with special needs.
Parents may state their wish for admission to a specific ECEC setting. When allocating a specific place, the municipality must to the extent possible take the parents’ wishes into account. The municipality is obliged to inform parents about the deadline for application to an ECEC provision. The parents must met this deadline in order to ensure that their child can start in day-care by the age of 26 weeks.
If a municipality is not able to provide the guaranteed ECEC provision, the municipality either has to cover the parents’ expenses for private day-care, cover the expenses for a ECEC setting in another municipality or provide parents with a subsidy so that they can take care of the child themselves.
Parents are entitled to state their wish for admission to an ECEC setting situated in another municipality than their local municipality. However, a municipality may decide to close the waiting list for children from other municipalities for capacity reasons and for up to three months at a time. If a child is placed in an ECEC setting in a municipality, where they do not reside then the local municipality is obliged to grant a subsidy.
Parents are entitled to maintain their child’s place in an ECEC setting when the family moves to another municipality. This right is maintained even if the waiting list is closed for children from other municipalities’.
Children, who attend an ECEC setting in a different municipality than the one where they live, are not guaranteed to progress to another ECEC setting in the same municipality unless the setting is age integrated. In an age-integrated setting, the child automatically progress from nursery to kindergarten within the same setting.
Age levels and grouping of children
Children attending ECEC settings are divided into levels according to age:
- Nurseries (vuggestue): the children’s age span from 26 weeks to 3 year olds
- Kindergarten (børnehave): the children’s age span from 3 to 5 or 6 year olds
- Integrated institutions (aldersintegrerede daginstitutioner): the children’s age span from: 26 weeks to 5 or 6 year olds
- Home-based provisions (dagpleje): the children’s age span from: 26 weeks to 5 or 6 years old
Usually, an ECEC setting divide the children into groups of 11-12 children and 3-4 pedagogues/day-care assistants are assigned to each group. However, there are no top-level regulations on the maximum number of children assigned to the pedagogues/day-care assistants. The grouping of the children may vary from setting to setting.
In home-based provision, one childminder may take up to five children. If two or more persons are carrying out childminding together, the municipality may allow the childminders to receive up to ten children.
Organisation of time
The ECEC settings are open Monday to Friday all year round except for religious holidays and other closing days. There are no specific legislative demands regarding the opening hours of the ECEC settings. However, the opening hours must cover the local needs for flexible childcare. In 2017 the average child under the age of 3 approximately spent 34 hours in day-care a week, while the average child over the age of 3 approximately spent about 32 hours a week in day-care.
Organisation of the day and week
ECEC settings normally open around 6.30 - 7.00 and close at 17.00. On Fridays, most of the settings close at 16.00. Some special ECEC settings are open all day and night. These types of settings are for children whose parents have shifting working hours.
Normally, the day in a ECEC setting consists of both organised play, project work and free play.
References
Legislation and official policy documents
Retsinformation (Legal Information), 2018. Bekendtgørelse om dagtilbud [Ministerial order on day-care]. [Online] Available at: https://www.retsinformation.dk/Forms/R0710.aspx?id=205922 [Accessed 15 march 2019]
Retsinformation (Legal Information), 2019. Bekendtgørelse af lov om dag-,fritids- og klubtilbud m.v. til børn og unge (dagtilbudsloven). [Order on Act on Day-Care, After-School and Club Facilities, etc. for Children and Young People (Day-Care Facilities Act)] [Online] Available at: https://www.retsinformation.dk/Forms/R0710.aspx?id=206363 [Accessed 15 march 2019]
Bibliography
Eurydice and Eurostat. 2019. Key Data on Early Childhood Education and Care in Europe.
Ministry for Children and Social Affairs. 2019. Dagtilbud. [Day-care]. [Online] Available at: https://socialministeriet.dk/arbejdsomraader/dagtilbud/ [Accessed: 15 March 2019]
Ministry for Children and Social Affairs. 2019. Early Childhood Education and Care. [Online] Available at: http://english.sm.dk/responsibilities-of-the-ministry/early-childhood-education-and-care/ [Accessed 15 march 2019]