Preschools

Application for stay in preschool

You apply for preschool for your child on the Vala webpage. The application needs to be filled before 1st of March the same year you need the stay. The child must have a legal residency in Hafnarfjörður for admission but can be on a waiting list though the legal residency is elsewhere.

You can apply for more than one preschool. We recommend checking out the available preschools, contacting the relevant principal and learning about the school. If the preschool you have as first choice is full, the second choice is activated, however if both are full, your child will be accepted into a preschool where there is space. They can stay from 4 – 8.5 hours a day, always the same hours every day of the week.

Allocation of stay

When your child is accepted, you will receive an email, where you’ll have to confirm the stay with the principal. As a rule, children are accepted in birth order. Children meeting the criteria for priority may be accepted earlier.

Preschool priority

Children with special circumstances are applicable for priority. You can apply for priority on My Pages. In some cases, a diagnosis from certified professionals is required.

You can apply for priority for:

• Children with disability (medical certificate).
• Children with developmental abnormalities (medical certificate).
• Children living with difficulties in their social environment – child protection issue (a certificate from social authorities).
• Children which family has serious illnesses or disabilities (a certificate from a doctor or another public entity).
• Children of parents under the age of legal age (18 years).
• Children of single parents with three or more children, where the eldest is 9 years of age or younger.
• Triplets.
• Children of employees in Hafnarfjörður’s preschools.

Summer holidays and closures

Preschools in Hafnarfjörður are closed during five planning days a year, as well as four half-days during the year for schoolwork planning. The school calendar for each preschool can be viewed at their websites.

Children have a minimum of a 4-week continuous summer vacation. All preschools in Hafnarfjörður are closed the last two weeks in July. No fees are for summer vacation and closing days.

Private preschools

You can request a stay for your child in a privately operated preschool and have the fees subsidised if the pre-school has an educational policy that is fundamentally different from Hafnarfjörður’s preschools. Parents or guardians that are full-time students can apply for private preschools for their child from the time the child turns 12 months.

• Rules about preschools (Icelandic)

• Change time of stay - application