All households will be able to send their children to nursery for a set amount of hours per month starting in the fiscal year beginning April 2025, the Children and Families Agency announced Monday, widening access beyond families with working parents.
As part of an effort to alleviate some of the burden on child-rearing families, the new policy will allow children between the ages of 6 months and 2 years to be looked after at nurseries. Currently, in most cases only children from families where both parents are working are admitted.
The agency aims to implement the policy by fiscal 2025, and to continue to increase the provision of nursery services around the nation. On Friday, the Children's Future Strategy Council decided that day care would be made available in every municipality from fiscal 2026.