The crèche is a social and behavioural institution for children from 6 weeks up to about 3 years whose parents or legal guardians are working. The crèche provides children with feeding, nursing-health treatments, the educational care as well as additional classes. There are public and private crèches in Poland. Public crèches are free of charge, however the number of places is limited. Parents or child’s legal carers can choose any crèche which they like. Having a registration in a given commune or district is a common entry requirement. Moreover both parents/legal carers must be employed. For private hence paid crèches all children are being accepted. Depending on the region, prices are developing in the range from a few hundred to over of thousand of PLN per month.
A nursery school
A nursery school is a social and behavioural institution for children from 3 up to 6 years. In particularly justified cases, the director of the nursery school can accept the child which has finished 2.5 years. In Poland the nursery school is not compulsory. An annual pre-school preparation, so-called "reception class" is compulsory (it is the final year of the nursery school, preparing for the primary school) for 6 years old children. "Reception classes" are being established at nursery schools, but schools have the right to create such a ward as well. The duty of going to „reception classes” starts with the beginning of the school year in this calendar year, in which the child finishes 6 years, what results from regulations of an act from 7th September 1991 about the educational system (Journal of Laws from 2005 No. 164, pos. 1365)
The aims of the nursery schools is to provide children with appropriate conditions of the physical, intellectual, emotional and social development, level possible gaps and delays in this respect, prepare the child for going to the primary school and help working parents in providing children with the education care . Nursery schools, similarly to creches, can be public and private. Nursery schools are not free of charge and the amount of payments at public nursery schools is being established through the commune where the nursery school is located. Payments done by parents of the child attending the nursery school are allocated, above all, for covering the food and additional classes’ expenses. These payments can develop from 150 - 350 PLN per month. At private nursery schools payments are much higher, they can reach even 1000 - 1300 PLN per month.
The 6-years-old children undergoing an annual pre-school preparation (so-called „reception class”) are accepted to the nursery school and the pre-school organized at the primary school, as first ones. Next ones are children of single parents, mothers or fathers with the considerable or restrained degree of disability or the inability to work, and stated inability of independent existence, as well as children put in foster families. 5-years-old children have also the right for using the pre-school education.
If the road of the 6-year-old child from the house to the nearest public nursery school or the pre-school at the primary school is longer than 3 km, the commune’s duty is to guarantee free public transport and child’s care during the transport or the reimbursement of child and carer’s travel costs.
