Childcare

Preschool

Preschool facilities are provided for children from one year of age until they start school. There are preschools, registered childminders and open preschools. The municipalities are responsible for preschool facilities and are obliged to offer these to carers who are working, studying, actively looking for work, on parental leave or on sick leave. In Värmland, there is also a wide selection of individual preschool facilities, i.e. preschools run by parental and staff cooperatives, for example, or by associations and companies.

Many preschools specialise in fields such as nature, the environment, play or languages. There are also preschools which work with specific educational emphasis, such as Montessori and Reggio Emilia.

Registered childminders

With registered childminders, activities are managed by childminders.

 All childminders in the same school catchment area work together and meet up regularly for joint activities. Their educational activities are based on the preschool curriculum, but adapted to suit the criteria of registered childminding.

Getting a place

The municipality is obliged to offer childcare places to children who are living and entered in the civil register in the municipality within four months of receipt of the application. The same is true of the children of asylum seekers and children with time-limited residence permits who are living in the municipality.

General preschool

The purpose of general preschool is to offer all children educational stimulation and a sense of community with other children, thereby giving them better opportunities for learning and development. Children are entitled to a preschool place for 15 hours a week as of the autumn term of the year in which the child reaches his or her third birthday. General preschool is free of charge, 525 hours a year, which is equivalent to 15 hours a week over the academic year.

Open preschool

Open preschool is a meeting place where children, together with their parents or other adults, are given the opportunity to benefit from social and educational stimulation.

Native language

All pupils who speak a language other than Swedish at home can receive teaching in their native language. The municipality of Karlstad offers native language support in preschool and native language teaching in primary and secondary school. Municipalities are obliged to arrange native language teaching if there is a group of at least five pupils in a primary and secondary school and if suitable teachers can be found. For the minority languages Romany, Finnish, Sami, Yiddish and Meänkieli, just one pupil applying for native language teaching will suffice. To create sufficiently large groups, native language teaching may be coordinated between several preschools/schools.

Childcare for school age children

Childcare for school age children is aimed at children up to and including the age of 12 who are at school (preschool class or compulsory schooling). Childcare for school age children, together with preschool activities, has a two-part task. On the one hand, it should help to provide good conditions for growing up by supporting and stimulating the development and learning of children, and on the other it should make it possible for parents to combine parenthood with gainful employment or studies.