Can foreign children enter daycare or kindergarten?

It is important for registered or undocumented foreign children aged 0-7 to attend day care centers or kindergartens. This is because parents need someone to look after them while they are economically active. We looked at what kind of support the Korean government and local governments are providing to foreign children aged 0-7.

Kindergarten

Kindergarten is a place for children between the ages of 5 and 7 attend for educational purposes. Currently, kindergartens are managed by each provincial office of education. For this reason, each local government differs in the contents of the kindergarten tuition support for foreign children.

Six education offices across the country (Seoul, Incheon, Gwangju, Gyeonggi, Jeonbuk, and Gyeongbuk) will provide 150,000 won per month for public and 350,000 won per month as childhood tuition (Nuri course fee) for private education for infants with foreign nationality starting March this year.

In the case of city A, if it is a national or public kindergarten, foreign children only have to pay 33,000 won per month for tuition and field trips. As of 2021, private kindergartens have to pay 330,000 won for infant tuition and 281,000 won for parents, but you can pay the remaining amount because you will receive 350,000 won in support.

However, as undocumented foreign children are not eligible for support, you have to pay 611,000 won in full for private kindergartens.

A city education office official said, “Originally, national and public kindergartens are a place that many children want to attend because tuition is low, but recently, due to the low birth rate, there are enough seats for foreign children to enter. "Call me first to see if the slot is available," he said.

The official also said, "I know that there are very few cases of refusal of admission for undocumented foreign children. It is recommended that kindergartens allow admission even if they inquire about the admission of undocumented foreign children. However, it will be burdensome because there is little support for tuition," he said.

Day care center

A daycare center is a place where children aged 0-7 attend, and the purpose of daycare is more than education.

Unlike kindergartens, there are not many local governments that support childcare fees at daycare centers. Currently, the amount that foreign children have to pay when attending daycare ranges from 499,000 won to 280,000 won for national and public daycare centers. The younger children are, the more expensive childcare is. Private daycare centers cost 499,000 won to 451,000 won.

Only some local governments, such as Guro-gu and Geumcheon-gu, Seoul, have been supporting 20% of the parental burden since March of this year.

Ansan, the city with the largest number of foreign residents, has been providing 220,000 won for 0-2 years old and 240,000 won for 3-5 years old since March of this year.

Siheung City will provide 260,000 won to children aged 0-5 this year, and Bucheon City will provide 280,000 won to children aged 3-5 this year. Gunpo City has been providing 100,000 won per child aged 0-5 since January last year.

However, the bigger problem is that daycare centers can refuse admission itself.

A city official said, "Since the director of the daycare center has the authority to decide on admission to the daycare center, although the city hall encourages directors of the daycare centers to grant admission as much as possible, but we do not have the authority to legally enforce it just because they refuse."

Currently discussing support for foreign children

In May 2019, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea recommended that the Minister of Health and Welfare come up with a support plan as stipulated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in relation to the Korean government's failure to subsidize childcare fees for foreign children.

However, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced in August 2021 that it could not accept this recommendation, saying that “the target of the social security system is the national citizen.”

However, in Korean society, efforts to expand childcare support for foreign children to daycare centers are continuing.

In July 2021, National Assembly member Ko Young-in of the Democratic Party of Korea (Ansan Danwon-gap, Gyeonggi-do) proposed the ‘Partial Amendment to the Infant and Toddler Childcare Act’ to allow foreign children to receive childcare subsidies. However, this law has not been passed and is pending.

In addition, the Seoul City Council, Gyeonggi-do Council, and Chungcheongbuk-do Council continue to urge support for childcare fees for foreign children.

With the efforts of many local governments and conscientious Koreans, it is expected that foreign children will soon be able to receive childcare support just like Korean children. However, it is unfortunate that there is hardly any discussion about support for undocumented foreign children.

Reporter Song Hasung