Rules on Preschool Service of Akureyri Municipality

Introduction

These rules apply to preschool services in Akureyri Municipality and to independent preschools (except Section 13). “Parent” is used here for those who have custody of a child according to the Children's Act no. 76/2003 with subsequent amendments.

1. Application for preschool

On Akureyri Municipality website you can find a list of all preschools which operate in Akureyri. Parents can apply for preschool after a child has received an ID number. Applications are made in electronic form in the service portal at akureyri.is

It is important that applications are submitted by 1 February of the year in which you wish the child to start preschool.

2. Enrollment process

The enrollment age for preschool in Akureyri Municipality is based on children having reached the age of 12 months on 31 August of the year they enroll. Age criteria are reviewed annually. Enrollment is done electronically, and parents receive an enrollment letter from the preschool by email.

  • Parents apply for a preschool as a main selection and an alternate selection. An application for the main selection has a certain weight in the enrollment process, as applications for the main selection are ranked on the school's waiting list according to the children's ID numbers.
  • If it is not possible to meet the parents' request for a school in the main selection, the application is entered on the list of the school that is placed as an alternate selection. Application from the alternate selection does not jump ahead of an application from the main selection of each school. If an alternative selection school is already full, we try to find free places in other schools.
  • If parents only apply to one school and do not receive an offer of enrollment there, efforts are made to offer them enrollment in another school for their child.
  • When enrolling, children who have older siblings in the school that’s being applied to are taken into account. The sibling priority applies if an older sibling has at least 6 months left of preschool when the younger child begins its adjustment at the school.
  • At the beginning of June, children are assigned to departments in each school. When assigning the departments, the age composition of the school's group of children is considered, among other things. After the age composition of each department has been determined, the age composition must be taken into account when a place becomes available in individual departments, as well as the fact that gender must be taken into account in the cores in Hólmasól preschool.

 

3. Priority

You can request priority in preschool due to:

  • Children with special needs. A diagnosis must be available from authorized analysts, e.g counselors - diagnostic center, psychologists and/or pediatricians.
  • Children who live in difficult social situations according to the assessment of the welfare department and/or doctors.
  • Other circumstances.

All priority requests must be received in writing and supported by documents from the above-mentioned parties

An evaluation group in the field of education and public health evaluates the priority requests that are received.

4. Application for transfer between preschools

Parents apply for a transfer between preschools in electronic form through the service portal of Akureyri Municipality. Applications are arranged on the application list according to the child's ID number. It is not possible to guarantee transfer between preschools during the calendar year, if the application is received after 1 February each year.

5. Notice period for preschools

The mutual notice period is one month and is based on the 1st or 15th day of each month. The school's summer closure does not count as a notice period. Notices are submitted electronically through the service portal of Akureyri Municipality

Parents of children who are finishing preschool because of their age, submit their notice at the beginning of February each year.

6. Confirmation of preschool placement, school contract and notice period

The majority of children's adaptation period takes place in autumn, but in exceptional cases adaptation can start in spring. The enrollment process begins with parents being sent an enrollment letter from the respective preschool.

  • Parents approve or reject school placement in the preschool with the school administrators within five days from the date of the enrollment letter.
  • If the school administrators do not receive confirmation from the parents within these five days, the parents will be contacted by phone or email.
  • Before a child starts preschool, parents and the principal sign a school contract. By signing the school contract, parents confirm that they have read the information within and undertake to abide by it.

7. Opening hours, planning days, registration days and summer holidays

Akureyri Municipality preschools are open from 07:45 to 16:15. The schools offer specific school hours and parents can choose from those hours. Preschools are closed 48 hours a year due to planning days that include continuing education, preparation and planning, and school activities. Information about planning days is on the school calendar of each school. There is no change in preschool fees due to planning days or course days.

There are a total of 20 optional registration days each school year. On those days, parents choose whether to enroll their children in school. A separate payment is charged for the registration days. Registration ends at least 20 days before the registration day. School fees for the registration days are paid with the monthly fee.

Preschools close for 20 consecutive working days over the summer. The arrangement of summer closures of preschools depends on the decision of the Education and Public Health Council each time, and information about them shall be available at the start of the year. The month of July is free of charge for those students who return to school after the summer closure and use school hours beyond the period from 8:00 - 14:00.

8. Requirements for attending preschool

All parents can apply for preschool for their children, regardless of their place of residence at the time, but a child's legal residence in the municipality is a condition for children to start attending a preschool in Akureyri. Akureyri Municipality subsidizes a child's attendance in one place at a time. Parents who have unpaid school fees are not allowed to enroll another child until the debt has been settled or negotiated.

9. Children’s illness

If a child cannot attend preschool due to illness for four consecutive weeks or longer, parents can apply for a cancellation of the meal costs through the service portal at akureyri.is

10. Special resources

Children who need special support according to the assessment of authorized analysts will receive it after receiving approval from the Department of Education and Public Health.

11. Tariff

From 1 January 2024, children's school hours from 8:00 – 14:00 are free of charge. All school hours beyond 8:00 – 14:00 are subject to a fee. Parents can apply for a discount on chargeable school hours. Discounts on chargeable school hours are income-related and are based on, on one hand on single parents, and on the other hand on cohabiting parents. Income is taken into account according to the previous year's tax return, see the preschool tariff. There is no discount on the meal fee. School fees are not reduced due to holidays or the unexpected absence of a student. Fees are charged from the first day of school, beyond the period from 8:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

The family discount is interconnected between daycare, preschool and/or after-school activities. In order to get a family discount, children within the same family must be registered with the same guardian's ID number and with a common legal domicile.

12. The cost of a child's preschool attendance

Akureyri Municipality pays most of the costs of children’s attendance in the town's preschools. Parents pay a part of the cost in proportion to the time their children spend in preschool beyond the period from 8:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. The cost ratio of parents appears on invoices, along with ingredients costs for children's meals in the preschool.

  • Preschool fees are charged electronically to the parents' online banking. Parents can view invoices from Akureyri Municipality in the service portal on the website of Akureyri Municipality. You can also request a printed payment slip there.
  • School fees are paid in advance and are due on the 15th - 18th of each month. If the fee has not been paid by the final due date, late interest will be charged from the due date.
  • School fees are not reduced due to holidays or the absence of a child, and the full fee is charged from the first day of adjustment beyond the free period from 8:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. However, this does not apply entirely to chronically ill children, cf. the resolution of the Education and Public Health Council of January 1st, 1998 on the rights of chronically ill children.
  • If school fees are unpaid 8 days after the final due date, parents will be sent a debt collection warning giving them a deadline for payment. If the debt is still unpaid 20 days after the final due date, it is automatically sent for collection by a debt collection agency. Please note that collection costs are added to the debt with each collection letter sent from the collection agency, and late interest is also calculated.
  • If the parents owe three months, the school contract with the preschool is terminated. The child or other children of these parents will not be re-enrolled in preschool until the debt has been settled or negotiated.
  • In the termination letter, a deadline of one month is given to pay or negotiate the debt with a debt collection agency. However, if the debtor neither pays nor negotiates their debt, the school contract is terminated at the end of the payment deadline.
  • If the payer has stopped receiving services from the Department of Education and Public Health and still has an unpaid debt after the third collection letter, a so-called legal letter is sent out, with the associated costs. If the debt is still not paid at the end of the deadline, it is sent for debt collection or claim monitoring. Akureyri Municipality’s Finance Department makes the final decision on which option is selected.

13. Temporary preschool attendance in another municipality

Preschool-aged children must generally attend preschool in the municipality where they have their legal domicile. If a child's parent requests temporary preschool attendance for the child in another municipality, an application to that effect must be submitted and the reasons for the application must be stated.

Application, rules and further information can be found in the service portal of Akureyri Municipality.

The director of the Department of Education and Public Health processes applications for preschool attendance in another municipality and confirms the municipality's obligation to pay for a child's preschool attendance. Payments are based on the reference tariff of the Association of Icelandic Municipalities, which is issued at the beginning of each school year.

When processing an application, the following conditions are primarily considered:

  • Parents are doing internships or university studies in another municipality.
  • Students are placed in temporary foster care by child protection services in another municipality.
  • Specialist services recommend that the student attend preschool in another municipality due to special circumstances.

Each application is processed for a maximum of 6 months at a time. As a general rule, it is expected that applications due to the above-mentioned circumstances will be processed.

14. Double preschool attendance

If an application is received for a child's double attendance in preschool or elementary school, it is the policy of Akureyri Municipality to reject such a request. See further the resolution by the Education and Public Health Council of Akureyri: According to the opinion of the Association of Icelandic Municipalities, it goes against the interests and needs of children to attend two schools, regardless of whether the child is of preschool or primary school age. You can find a guiding opinion on double attendance from the Association of Icelandic Municipalities here.

15. Foreign families

Families of Icelandic citizens with foreign legal domicile, who are temporarily staying in Akureyri for study or work, can apply for temporary preschool attendance.

Parents of children who are temporarily without an ID number and/or legal domicile, or who are registered outside of Iceland with Registers Iceland can apply for a preschool in Akureyri. It is a requirement that parents and child have permanent residence in Akureyri, according to definition of the Act on Legal Domicile no. 21/1990, and that it can be assumed that when a legal domicile is obtained it will be in Akureyri.

Confirmation of residence in Akureyri is requested with the following data:

  • Citizens of EEA and EFTA countries and foreigners who are allowed to stay in Iceland without a residence permit according to the Foreign Nationals Act no. 96/2002, must submit a confirmation of the request for registration of legal domicile in Akureyri.
  • Citizens of countries that are not members of the EEA or the EFTA agreement and are not allowed to stay in Iceland without a residence permit, according to the Foreign Nationals Act (see Act above), must submit confirmation of the application for a residence permit and it must be stated in the application that the person is registered with an address in Akureyri.
  • Asylum seekers according to the Foreign Nationals Act (see link to the Act above), must submit the asylum seeker's registration certificate from the Directorate of Immigration, and the Directorate of Immigration must have concluded a contract with Akureyri Municipality that the support and housing of the asylum seeker will be in the hands of Akureyri.
  • Refugee groups and refugees, according to the Foreign Nationals Act (see Act above), who have received a residence permit, and the Directorate of Immigration has concluded a contract for services on their behalf in Akureyri, must submit a confirmation to that effect.

 

 

Approved by the Town Council June 3rd, 2024.

Revised rules approved by the Education and Public Health Council on 13 May 13th, 2024

Amendment to item 2 of Article 2 on age criteria approved in the Education and Public Health Council on 7 Dec. 2020.

Approved by the Town Council on July 2nd, 2020

Approved by the Council of Education and Public Health on June 15th 2020

Last updated 14. June 2024