Admission for kindergarten

We recommend you sign your child und a waiting list for kindergarten no later than when your child turns 2 years, as it is the earliest possible seniority date.

If your child is enrolled in a combined day nursery or kindergarten your child is guaranteed a spot in the kindergarten section. This means you do not have to re-register for admission to the same kindergarten section.

In case your child is not enrolled in day nursery or public childminding, your child is guaranteed enrolment in a kindergarten in your area of the city if you sign your child up on a waiting list for kindergarten no later than 3 months before your child turns 3 years old. 

Your child will be guaranteed enrolment from the general waiting list no later than when the child turns 3 years old. Please notice, however, that your child can receive an offer for enrollment from your child turns 2 years and 10 months.

Yes, you can always change your wish of childcare service. Please note, however, that the seniority date on the waiting list you have changed will be the current registration date, if your child is above 2 years old on the new registration day.

Yes, you can sign your child up on a waiting list to a combined day nursery and kindergarten. But please notice that it can be very difficult to get an offer for enrolment in the kindergarten section, if your child has not been enrolled in the day nursery section first. 

The reason for this is that some combined day nursery and kindergarten only have room for their own day nursery children in their kindergarten section, which means that they rarely offer enrolment to children from their waiting list for kindergarten.

Yes, you can always change your wish of childcare service. But please note that the seniority date on the waiting list you have changed will be the current registration date, if your child is above 2 years old on the new registration day.

Please note that specific rules apply for transfer between childcare services:

• The date of need has to be today's date
• You will only receive 1 offer for transfer
• No matter if you accept, decline or do not reply to an offer for transfer, Pladsanvisningen will remove your child from the waiting list. 

You can subsequently choose to re-register your child on the waiting list in order to gain seniority as of the date on which you do so.

Every municipality can decide whether they want to have their waiting list open for children from other municipalities.

If you live in The City of Copenhagen you may choose to sign up your child on waiting lists in another municipality. You have to contact the municipality you have in mind and enquire directly. Your child will be added to their waiting list according to their rules, which may be different than the admission rules in Copenhagen.

On the website ventelistelukning.dk you will find information regarding the municipalities that have open or closed waiting lists for citizens from other municipalities.

Please note that the cost for day care in another municipality might be different than for citizens living in the municipality. It is Forældrebetalingen (The Parental Payment Section) in your municipality, who can inform you about the cost.

The City of Copenhagen has closed its waiting lists for children from other municipalities until February 20th 2025 (updated every 3rd month).

If you do not live in Copenhagen, you can still:

• Sign up your child on a waiting list to a company-owned childcare facilitiy in case you and/or the other parent are employed in that company.
• Sign up your child on a waiting list, if you live in Sweden and work in the City of Copenhagen.

You cannot use Digital Pladsanvisning if:

• You do not have MitID
• You or your child do not have a civil registration number (CPR number)
• You do not have an officially registered address in Copenhagen 
• You do not live on the same address as your child
• You do not have custody over your child
• If you are abroad (not physically in Denmark)

Please contact Pladsanvisningen in case you cannot use Digital Pladsanvisning.

You may sign up your child from the day your child has a civil registration number (CPR number) and have a registered address in the City of Copenhagen.

However, the seniority date will be the same whether you sign up when your child is four days old or the day your child turns 2 years.

We recommend that you sign up no later than the day your child turns 2 years.

If your child is more than 2 years old, seniority on the waiting list will be from the current registration date. 

The general waiting list consist of all kindergartens in your area within 4 kilometers from your address. 

When your child is enrolled in a day nursery or public childminding, Pladsanvisningen will automatically register your child on a general waiting list for kindergarten.

Your child may receive an offer for enrolment in a kindergarten when your child turns 2 years and 10  months old. 

Your child can be offered enrolment in a kindergarten from the first day of the month in which the child turns 2 years and 10 months, if there are any available places.

Your child will be offered the first available place according to its position on the waiting list, which does not have to be offered to a sibling to a child already enrolled in the kindergarten. 

Please note that during some periods of the year, there are very few or no available kindergarten places. This means that some children will be above 3 years old before it is possible to offer them a place for kindergarten.

You can follow your child's position on the waiting list from your child turns 2 years old at Digital Pladsanvisning.

Newcomers and internal movers (more than 4 kilometres) to The City of Copenhagen can sign up for the kindergarten waiting list with the seniority of their child's 2 years birthday. This means that the position of other children on the kindergarten waiting list may change on an ongoing basis.

Before your child turns 2 years and 10 months

If you decline an offer for kindergarten for your child to start before the month your child turns 2 years and 10 months, there are no consequences for your child's position on the waiting list. If your child attends a combined day nursery and kindergarten institution , you can also decline without any consequences.

From the month your child turns 2 years and 10 months old

If you decline an offer for kindergarten for your child to start in the month your child turns 2 years and 10 months or later, your child will be withdrawn from its current childcare service with one month's notice because your child has now been offered a place in a childcare service that corresponds to their age.

It depends if the offer is given via the general waiting list or a specific waiting list.

When you accept a place in kindergarten via a specific waiting list, Pladsanvisningen removes your child from all waiting lists. However, this does not apply if your child is on a waiting list, where it has sibling priority.

When you accept a place in kindergarten via the general waiting list, you get an offer for a kindergarten through the general waiting list in case there are no available spots in any of the specific waiting lists your child is registered for. The general waiting list covers an area of 4 kilometers form your home address.

If you accept an offer via the general waiting list, your child will stay on the specific waiting lists.

If you once refrain from responding to an offer, Pladsanvisningen may postpone your date of need two months ahead from the starting date of the offer. In case you do not respond twice to an offer from an institution, Pladsanvisningen will remove your child from that waiting list.

Yes, Pladsanvisningen always take siblings into consideration. This means that siblings are offered enrolment before children on the waiting list, who do not have a sibling in the day care.

In case you do not get an offer for enrolment in the childcare service were a sibling is already enrolled, you can accept an offer for another day care and still keep the position on the waiting list to the sibling's day care. If you accept an offer to another day care, it is important that you tell Pladsanvisningen that you want the sibling to stay on the waiting list.

Yes, children who are enrolled in the day nursery section are guaranteed enrolment in the kindergarten section. This means that children on the waiting list for the kindergarten in a combined day nursery and kindergarten institution might never be admitted.

Yes. It is important for The City of Copenhagen that all children have a good and coherent transition, when they change between day care facilities.

This means that all relevant information about the child is transferred to the new day care so that staff can organise the reception of the child in the best possible way. This could be information about the child's development. We call this transfer of knowledge.

Parents and childcare services work closely together in order to make the best possible transfer of knowledge always based on the child's needs.