Early childhood education and care client fees

The municipal early childhood education fee is based on the Act on Client Fees in Early Childhood Education and Care (1503/2016). A monthly fee is charged for early childhood education, which is determined by family size, service needs, and gross income.

Maximum fees in early childhood education from 1 August 2026

• If one child from your family is in early childhood education, the fee is at most €335 per month.
• If you have two children, the fee for the second child is 40% of the first child’s fee, i.e. a maximum of €134 per month.
• If there are three or more children from the family in early childhood education, the fee for the third and subsequent children is 20% of the first child’s fee.
• The minimum monthly fee charged is €32.

Income limits for client fees

The highest early childhood education fee charged is €335/month (over 147 h/month). The lowest client fee charged is €32/month.

For families with more than six members, the income limit is increased by €295 for each subsequent child.

If you wish to calculate the early childhood education fee, you can use the following formula: the income limit according to family size is subtracted from the family’s combined monthly income (gross), and the fee is calculated from the remaining portion according to the fee percentage (10.7).

You can estimate the amount of the child’s early childhood education fee here using the client fee calculator:

Family size

Family size includes persons living together in a marriage or cohabitation, as well as the underage children of both who belong to the same household.

Service needs in early childhood education

The amount of the client fee is affected by the service needs chosen by the family as follows:

• 40% of the client fee, 0–80 h/month
• 60% of the client fee, 81–120 h/month
• 80% of the client fee, maximum 147 h/month
• 100% client fee, over 147 h/month

Invoicing

The early childhood education invoice is always sent retrospectively. For example, the October invoice is sent in mid-November, and its due date is at the end of November.

The client fee is based on the total accumulation of planned and actual hours in the Päikky system. With the client fee calculator, you can calculate an indicative client fee amount; the actual client fee is calculated after the income details have been submitted.

The effect of care hour bookings and actual care hours on invoicing

The client fee is always in accordance with the valid monthly fee and the service needs based on it. The client fee is affected by the child’s care hour booking and the time spent in early childhood education. For example, if the care hour booking is 08:00–16:00 (8h) and the child’s actual care time is 10:55–18:00 (7h 5min), 08:00–18:00 (10h) will be transferred to invoicing, i.e. the total time from the start of the booking to the end of the care day.

The client may temporarily exceed the selected number of hours. An exceedance of even one minute will raise the fee to the next fee category. The client fee according to the exceedance is invoiced for that month. Invoicing does not take into account any shortfall in planned or actual hours.

A ‘Planned absence’ entry made for a child’s day off does not accumulate hours towards the total number of hours. If a care day has been booked for a child, for example 08:00–16:00 (8h), and it is marked as an absence, this day is worth the booked day, i.e. 8h in this case. These hours affect the invoicing.

If no entry has been made in the care hour booking calendar at all and the child is absent, the program calculates the child’s average daily number of hours into the billable hours for that day.

Private early childhood education service voucher co-payment

The co-payment is determined in the same way as in municipal early childhood education. The City of Hämeenlinna decides the value of the service voucher. The value is determined according to the child’s age, the service needs for early childhood education, the family size, and the guardians’ income.

The city pays the service voucher portion directly to the service provider. The family is responsible for paying the co-payment, which is paid to the service provider. If you do not accept the highest co-payment for the service voucher, please submit your income details electronically within two weeks of the start of the child’s early childhood education placement.

Contact information