Enrollment to State Kindergarten in Brno - Step by Step Process / School Year 2020- 2021

Finding a free place to a state Czech kindergarten is quite difficult, not only for us as expats but for the Czech people as well. I do trust there is no difference between czech and non-czech kids in this country, the people of Brno and Czech Republic in general, really respect and put children on the first place. I try to think and trust that we are not competing against czech families because I have seen how difficult is for them, as well. Now, that we know we have equal chances, how do we enroll our kid to the state kindergarten.

Except for few broken pieces of information available on hidden Facebook groups there is little to almost no information available for the non-czech speaking people.  Maybe you work fulltime and don't have time to read all FB group discussions, that information stays buried there as opposed to having it on a forum or blog. It's odd to me that no other expat parents made such information available to help the rest of us, there are many out there with bigger experience than mine. I think we need to support each other as much as possible in this kind of life situations. It seems everyone who manages to find the state kindergarten somehow keeps it 'secret', have no idea why. Maybe because of the fight there is on the free places...So, I took courage to say how we are doing it in hopes we might help others, as it might get complicated and confusing at times. From this year on, I will document here our experience with finding and enrolling our kid to state kindergarten - to the use of general English speaking audience residing in Czech Republic.

Why might you consider state kindergarten?
Well, the costs for private care range between 5000 - 15.000 czk / month with and extra 1000 czk for the meals. In state care you might pay just 500 - 1000 czk / month for everything, or less, these are the numbers I came across so far. While I trust anyone can choose what type of private kindergarten is suitable, I think the issue with state enrollment needs to be properly documented, here on a blog.

The Enrollment Process for Brno

Each year there is the enrollment window somewhere between February - May for all regions and Brno Districts. The process is divided into 3 phases & here is the 2019 case which means the enrollment for school year 2019 - 2020.

• Phase 1 - Public Issue of the Application Forms   1.April - 1.May

You can access the application form 3 ways:

A. Electronic Issue

On the Internet at: 

www.zapisdoms.brno.cz in pdf format.

or

B. Pickup in kindergarten

For each kindergarten in days set by the headteachers of each school during the aforementioned period.

or

C. Pickup at OŠMT

At the Department of Education, Youth and Sports of the City of Brno, Dominikánské nám. 3, 1st floor, Mgr. Hanáková , Door No. 104 or Mrs. Hofbrucker, Door No. 103.

• Phase 2: Collection of Applications - between 2 - 3 May 2019. This takes place at each individual kindergarten. Read more information on the portal here.

Basically you take the filled in application form from previous step (filled in by you and the child's doctor) and together with your residence permit, ID card and child's birth certificate, bring it to the school/kindergarten office. PAy attention to all details as there are just these 2 days available and registration request must be delivered by you in person.

• Phase 3: Admissions: from 9.May.2019 - from this date on you can expect the kindercarten to contact you via email (for foreigners this is 1st preference), by post or phone number to let you know whether your child got accepted or not. You can check the progress of your application on the same portal where you filled in the online application form at step 1. It might take even August until you will know the answer, or even after September as most parents enroll the kid to several kindergartens to ensure the place to at least one. In theory, parents must withdraw their requests before the beginning of next school year but in practice it almost nvere happen so after September places might be free.

How do I choose the kindergarten?

On the online portal you can access the map

The online map did not function well for me, maybe I was not aware to understand it, so I used the navigation system by searching the catchment area like so:

Go and click the list of schools/kindergartens:

Choose the kindergarten closest to your region/district:

Click on the Spádová oblast tab:

Next it will open you the catchment area, a list with all street numbers and belonging addresses that are accepted at this school/kindergarten:

After applying, you wait for next phase when the school director will contact you with a decision.

Admission procedure and how points are counted for each applicant

You might enjoy also my youtube vlog post about this experience.

Hope this article helped ease at least a little bit your work with finding and enrolling your kid to a state kindergarten. Share in comments bellow your experience and other tips!

Please feel free to reach out to me in case you wish to have your story published here on blogger, for the use of all Brno expat community. You can contact me via email at:  brnovlog@gmail.com

Thank you for reading