All daycare facilities in Trondheim have a coordinated admission process.

Make sure to read the Statutes of the kindergarten you choose, prior to application. You can find the statutes for municipal kindergartens on this website.

Kindergarten application website

If you need help filling out the application form, take a look at Vigilo's step-by-step user guide, which currently only is available in Norwegian.

You can also use this link to respond to an offer for a position for your child, but you will have to log in with MinID/Bank ID/Buypass.

While you are waiting for a place in a kindergarten or at home on parental leave, feel free to visit one of Trondheim's open kindergartens. We have 15 different meeting places for preschool children with parents throughout town. More information about open kindergartens in this brochure.

Prices and Payment

Fees in Kindergartens

The following fees apply for Trondheim's day-care centres.

Hours in attendance weekly vs monthly fee:

• 25-32 hours: 2115 NOK
• 33-40 hours: 2665 NOK
• 41 hours or more: 3000 NOK

New prices from 1st August 2024!

Hours in attendance weekly vs monthly fee will then be:

• 25-32 hours: 1410 NOK
• 33-40 hours: 1780 NOK
• 41 hours or more: 2000 NOK

Municipal kindergartens offer only the following types of places: 25-32 hours/week (3 days), 33-40 hours/week (4 days) and 41+ hours/week (5 days).

There is an additional daily meals fee, which differs from kindergarten to kindergarten.

If you want to change the amount of hours your child attends kindergarten, you will have to log in to the same site where you accepted your offer.

Invoices and Payment

In municipal kindergartens the annual payment is split into 11 monthly installments. No invoices are sent out in July.

We have the following payment procedures

• An invoice is sent out with claims for payment at the beginning of each month
• The payment is due on 20th each month
• The Municipality of Trondheim offers payment options such as automated payments and eBilling

If you do not pay on time:

• We will send you a reminder/debt collection notice. You will only receive one reminder/debt collection notice. We will calculate the amount of delay interest and late charges you will have to pay.
• If the payment is still absent, the case will automatically go to the collection agency.
• In case you do not comply with the collection agency’s request of payment, we will send you a termination notice which applies from the first or the fifteenth of the following month.
• Application to other kindergartens cannot be processed as long as there are unpaid invoices from previous caregivers.

Changing the recipient of the invoice

If you want to change the recipient of the daycare invoice, you need to request this on a specific form. The form must be signed by both parents (new and former recipient). The form can be sent by regular mail or email to the Department of Early Childhood and Education. If you have failed to pay former invoices, you cannot change the invoicee.

Refunds in case of disease

If your child has been absent from kindergarten for more than a month in a row due to illness, you can apply for a refund of the monthly fee and the daily meals fee. The duration of the illness has to be documented by a medical statement that you attach to your application to the principal.

Daily meals fee

In addition to the monthly fee for kindergarten, you will need to pay a daily meals fee. The amount of the daily meals fee is determined by the User Council.

Settling in to a municipal kindergarten

Daycare fees are to be paid from the day you are offered to start attending a kindergarten. As a general rule, this falls on the first or the fifteenth of the month.

In August there are many new children settling in to daycare. Here we have the following rule: Children who are offered a place from 1st August shall have started attending a kindergarten by 10th August. These families pay for the entire month of August. Children who are offered a place from 11th August and onwards pay their fees from the date they are offered a place.

Concerning settling in to a new kindergarten or a new department: if you are offered a place in a kindergarten from 1st of the month, you shall have started attending it by 10th. These families pay for the entire month concerned. Children who are offered a place from 11th of the month and onwards pay their fees from the date they are offered a place. Therefore, the offer date and the commencement date must be the same.

NB! If you change places from a municipal to a private kindergarten or vice versa, you will have to terminate your place electronically (at the same website where you applied).

Different types of fee reduction

Families with more than one child in kindergarten receive 30% fee reduction for the second child and the third child and above is free of charge, i.e. you only pay for meals. The oldest child or the lowest fee gets the reduction, as long as they are registered at the same address.

Children have a right to 20 hours free kindergarten from 1st August the year they turn 2, as long as the family's annual taxable income is under 615 590 NOK (as of 1st August 2023).

Any family with an annual taxable income under 615 590 NOK can apply for reduced parental payment in kindergarten.

You apply via an electronic form (instructions currently only available in Norwegian). You have to attach both parents' tax reports from the previous year.

Decisions about reduction in parental payment apply from the month following the date you send in your application. It can take some weeks to process an application for reduced parental payment. In the meantime you will have to pay the invoices that are due.

Admission and Application Deadlines

A kindergarten application is only valid through the calendar year it is sent in. Those who apply before 31st December without being assigned a place, need to apply again the following year.

February 1st - Transfer admission deadline

Transfer admission applies to children with a place in a daycare facility who wish to transfer to another unit.

This means:

• the child must have been assigned a place in a kindergarten by 1st February
• the application must be sent by the deadline, i.e. 1st February
• the desired starting date can be no later than 31st August
• the places are assigned from August and onwards

Admission criteria:

You will find admission criteria in the statutes of each kindergarten.

The applications for transfer admission that are rejected, are consequently transferred to the supplemental admission process.

March 1st - Main admission deadline

The main admission applies to children who, according to the Kindergarten Act section 12a have a right to a place in a daycare center, but have not been assigned one yet.

This means:

• the youngest children must turn one by 30th November
• the application must be sent in by the deadline, i.e. 1st March
• the desired starting date can be no later than 30th November
• the places are assigned from August and onwards

Children with statutory priority (admission criteria 1&2) are included in the main admission, regardless of age.

Admission criteria:

You will find admission criteria in the statutes of each kindergarten.

If you accept an offer, your application will be deleted from the waiting list. If you receive an offer from a kindergarten that is not your first choice, you will have to choose the option "I accept the offer but would like to stay on the waiting list" when you accept the offer electronically.

No deadline - Supplemental admission

Supplemental admission applies to places that become available in daycare facilities during the course of the kindergarten year. If you accept an offer, your application will be deleted from the waiting list. Therefore, you must send in a new application if you would like to continue to be on the waiting list of other kindergartens.

The Education Administration does not reject applications sent for supplemental admission. Applications are active until you accept an offer of a place in kindergarten, or otherwise until the end of the calendar year.

Admission criteria:

You will find admission criteria in the statues of each kindergarten.

Termination of a place in kindergarten

Kindergarten places must be terminated electronically at the same site where you accepted the place offered. Places in municipal kindergartens must be terminated a month in advance effective from 1st of the next month. You have to pay the parental fee and the daily meals fee during the termination period.

The same deadlines apply when you terminate a place you have received and accepted that you later decide not to use after all.

Remember that you also have to terminate your place when changing from a private to a municipal kindergarten or vice versa. If you switch between two municipal units, your first place will be terminated automatically.

The municipality may also terminate your place with one month's notice from the 1st of the next month if you have been granted a place based on wrong premises, if you fail to pay your bills, have a lot of undocumented abscence or move out of the municipality.

Different deadlines for termination apply in private kindergartens. Check the statutes of your kindergarten at their website.

Statutes of municipal kindergartens

Forms

You can find the kindergarten related forms that are translated to English by writing "kindergarten", "child care" or "school" in the search field on our Forms from A to Z page.

Municipal routines

Transition routines from kindergarten to elementary school

Contact Information

For more information contact the Education Administration Office:

Phone: +47 97 99 61 00 (line open 8.30-11.30 am Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays)

Email:

You can download your tax report at Altinn.

You find your invoices from the municipality at my page (in the top right corner of this site).