Incheon City Provides Full Support for Necessary Expenses of 5-Year-Old Daycare Children

Expansion of Eligibility to Age 3 by 2026

Incheon City has decided to fully cover the necessary expenses for field trips and other costs at daycare centers that parents have been bearing.

The city announced on the 7th that starting this month, it will fully support the necessary expenses for about 7,000 children aged 5 (born in 2017), including foreigners, using daycare centers regardless of household income or assets.

Necessary expenses refer to actual costs required for special activities, field trips, transportation, admission preparation, and other items beyond the daycare fees currently supported by the government and the city. Parents have been fully responsible for an average annual cost of about 1.9 million KRW per child.

The support for necessary expenses will be provided through daycare centers applying directly for subsidies to the district offices, with a monthly support limit of 175,000 KRW per child. While some metropolitan cities provide partial support for certain necessary expense items, Incheon City is the only one to support all expense categories.

The city plans to expand the full support for necessary expenses from 5-year-olds to children aged 3 to 5 by 2026 to fulfill Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok’s pledge in the 8th term of the civil administration to "eliminate blind spots in free education (daycare centers)."

Incheon City Hall

An official from Incheon City said, "As Incheon has presented a proactive model for supporting necessary expenses for free childcare for 5-year-olds using daycare centers, we hope this will reduce the burden on parents," adding, "From the perspective of overcoming low birth rates, we will discover various projects for complete free childcare for infants and toddlers, including expanding support for necessary expenses to children aged 3 to 5."

Meanwhile, since 2019, the city has been fully supporting daycare fees for children aged 3 to 5 (113,000 KRW to 128,000 KRW per child per month) to alleviate the childcare burden on parents of infants and toddlers.

Additionally, to improve daycare center operations, this year the city increased the support for cook staff wages from 360,000 KRW to 460,000 KRW and raised the clean free meal costs by 10%. Furthermore, plans are underway to promote a therapist visiting support project to aid the healthy growth of infants and toddlers.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.