Latvian municipalities tighten access to private preschools

Latvian municipalities are restricting parents’ options for choosing private preschools as falling birth rates leave more places vacant in municipal kindergartens, LSM reports. The number of children born in Latvia has dropped by nearly a third over seven years, while Riga’s municipal preschools have 7% fewer pupils this autumn than in spring.

Municipalities are responding to the decline by reducing the number of kindergarten groups or closing facilities. Riga is reviewing its rules for co-funding private preschool care, and other municipalities are also seeking ways to maintain their public preschools. The association representing private preschools is calling for uniform rules for cooperation with municipalities.

Under Latvia’s Education Law, a municipality must pay for a child’s place in a private preschool only when it cannot provide a place in a municipal institution. In practice, municipalities have continued co-funding private care even when a public place was available and parents chose a private provider.

Riga plans to change its policy from the next school year. Parents will be able to apply to three municipal kindergartens. Co-funding for a private preschool will be available only if none of them can offer a place to a child aged at least 18 months.