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Parents and Whanau

South Canterbury Free Kindergarten Association has made the decision to opt into the Government’s policy that offers up to 20 hours free early education to three and four year olds.

We have decided to support free entitlement because we believe it is the best option for families and for children. Essentially this policy gives kindergarten more certainty of income to enable planning to better meet children’s needs.

It won’t change the look and feel of kindergarten or quality of service.

What will change is that families who choose to nominate the hours their child attends kindergarten as free won’t be asked to pay a donation for each session or fundraise for basics such as power or telephone. Instead, they choose to make a donation if their kindergarten is fundraising for a particular event or for resources.

If families decide to use their “free hours” with other early childhood services, they are still welcome to come to kindergarten, but they’ll just be asked to pay a fee of only $4 per child per hour to cover the cost of kindergarten. Many families will be able to access the childcare subsidy to cover some of the cost of the fee.

You will be asked to complete an attestation form if your child will be three years or older on the 1st of July.

Please complete the form if you decide to nominate any or all of your child’s hours at kindergarten as free, and send it back to your kindergarten by the 25th of May.

If you don’t get the form back to us, we will assume you are not using your child’s hours at kindergarten as part of your entitlement, and you will be invoiced for the hours they attend.

If you would like further information please talk to the teachers or telephone the South Canterbury Free Kindergarten Association office 03 688 3098.