User:Nadjita/Childcare
International situation
Germany
In Germany, childcare is not mandatory. There are several different forms of childcare depending on the child's age. Laws regulate how many children a childcare worker can supervise and the maximum size of individual groups in each of the 4 main systems. For children aged 3-6, groups should not exceed 25 children; for younger children, no more than 15. If children with special needs are included in any group, these numbers are reduced further. The following list is not exhaustive, and strict separation between systems no longer exists. Many kindergartens include nursery services, and some offer mixed-age groups, allowing children to remain in the same group from age 0 to 6.
Nursery (Krippe)
A nursery typically accepts children from 0 to 3 years old. Some start with 1-year-olds, others at 18 months - it varies by facility. Nurseries focus on care rather than education, primarily enabling both parents to work while their children receive supervised care.
Kindergarten (Kindergarten, Kindertagesstätte, Kita, Kinderladen)
Children typically attend kindergarten between ages 3 and 6, though facilities with nursery services may offer mixed-age groups spanning 0-6 years. Kindergarten serves as school preparation during the final year, but differs from formal schooling by emphasizing play, social skills, and learning through experience. German kindergarten is equivalent to isced:level=0.
After school care (Hort)
After-school care typically serves primary school children aged 6 to 10. Some facilities extend services up to age 14, though this is usually not called "Hort." A Hort typically provides hot meals, homework assistance, and recreational activities such as playground time and board games.
Childminder (Kindertagesmutter, Kindertagespflege)
A childminder is an individual (usually a woman) who cares for up to 5 children under age 6 in her own home, sometimes also providing after-school care for older children. This concept is similar to nursery care but takes place in the childminder's residence. The limit is strictly 5 children per adult, though 2 or more childminders can collaborate to create a facility serving up to 15 children (called "Großtagespflege"). Since private homes typically cannot accommodate this many children, such arrangements usually require renting separate premises.
Canada (Ontario)
Daycare
Might also be called "child care", "day care", "preschool", sometimes a variation on "kindergarten" or "school".
Mostly privately operated. Some offer infant supervision (some without any minimum age, others starting around 6 months), while some offer only toddler groups (18 months) and up.
Around 30 months (2.5 years old) the groups might begin to be called "preschool" and some very light education might begin in addition to supervision/care.
There are some home daycares, theoretically amenity=childminder if signed; I think there is some licensing by local government but I don't know much about them.
Kindergarten
Publicly-funded Ontario school boards offer kindergarten starting from age 4 (minimum age 3 years 9 months at the start of school year in September). These are most often located within primary/elementary schools and roughly the same duration as the elementary school day. First year is "junior kindergarten" ("JK") and second year is "senior kindergarten" ("SK"). These are not mandatory but are very common because unlike daycare, they are no-fee. Kindergarten is education; children in JK learn some letters and numbers and are evaluated.
At age 6, children begin compulsory primary school in Grade 1.
Generally I would not expect to see a separate kindergarten OSM node within a school, unless there are plenty of additional OSM tags to add for the kindergarten.
Mixed ages
Some school kindergartens also include a privately-operated daycare that cares for children under kindergarten age and offers after-school care.
Some private institutions offer care for younger children as well as kindergarten age education. Some private institutions might also include primary school education; I've seen one advertising for ages 18 months to 14 years in one building, operated by one company.
Missing features
Short term care
There is currently no tag to describe whether a facility offers short-term care (e.g., dropping off your child for ~2h to go and see a doctor). In some countries, nurseries especially offer this as a service, but IKEA's Småland is also famous for exactly this type of service. I am suggesting to use drop_in_care=yes/no/only with drop_in_care:*=* for refinement.
Upscale nursery:
amenity=childcare nursery=yes drop_in_care=yes drop_in_care:for=children drop_in_care:registration=yes drop_in_care:reservation=required drop_in_care:min_age=6 months
IKEA Småland:
shop=furniture […] drop_in_care:name=Småland drop_in_care=yes drop_in_care:for=children drop_in_care:min_age=3 drop_in_care:max_age=10 drop_in_care:registration=no drop_in_care:reservation=no drop_in_care:maxstay=90 minutes
Dog drop-in care:
shop=pet drop_in_care=yes drop_in_care:for=dogs drop_in_care:maxstay=30 minutes
A drop-in care only nursery:
amenity=childcare drop_in_care=only drop_in_care:for=children registration=no reservation=recommended min_age=6 months max_age=3 years maxstay=4 hours
Education philosophy
As marketed or branded: Ontario has some daycares and kindergartens that explicitly market themselves as "Montessori" or "forest school" while others don't claim a particular education philosophy. Should this be tagged in anything other than name if applicable?
Yes, this can be tagged with pedagogy=*, eg. pedagogy=Montessori.
Language of education
Kindergartens in public schools in Ontario generally follow language of instruction of the school (English in English school boards, French in French school boards (school:language=french)). Some schools in English school boards offer w:en:French immersion and this is increasingly extended to "early immersion" in kindergarten: children are taught French letters and words and aren't taught the English letters, teachers and instructors use French as much as practical.
The agreed way to tag this is language:fr=main + language:en=no (see language:*=*).
But what about children that speak English/French/whatever as a second or foreign language? I know that some schools here have special classes for them, but not kindergartens or nurseries. And how would we tag that?
Religious affiliation
Similarly, kindergartens in public schools in Ontario that are part of a separate school board in Ontario might follow a religious curriculum (e.g. daily prayer). (The amenity=school OSM objects are tagged with religion=* and denomination=* as needed.)
Physically or mentally challenged
We lack a way to describe whether and how childcare and educational institutions accommodate children with special needs. This could involve integrating children with and without special needs in the same groups, or providing separate specialized groups. I suggest using special_needs=* as a new key, since it's widely understood, whereas shortcuts like sen=* are not.
How are they integrated?
The way special needs children are integrated should be tagged the following:
| Tag | Meaning |
|---|---|
special_needs=yes |
Childcare accepts special needs children (use more specific values when known) |
special_needs=only |
Childcare only for special needs children; a certificate might be needed to enroll |
special_needs=separated |
Special needs children are in dedicated groups separate from mainstream children |
special_needs=mixed |
Childcare with special needs children where the special needs children are in the same groups with non-special need children |
special_needs=limited |
Accepts special needs children but with partial accommodation (e.g., only some staff trained in sign language, limited accessible facilities). Special needs children are always in mixed groups with mainstream children. |
special_needs=no |
Childcare with no support at all for children with special needs. |
special_needs can also act as a subkey, especially for capacity:
amenity=kindergarten nursery=yes preschool=yes special_needs=mixed # When special needs kids are present, they're integrated capacity=37 # 37 children in total capacity:special_needs=3 # 3 out of 37 children are special needs children nursery:capacity=12 # 12 children in the nursery nursery:capacity:special_needs=3 # 3 out of 12 children in the nursery are special needs children nursery:special_needs=yes # Nursery has integrated special needs children (because special_needs=mixed) preschool:capacity=25 # 25 children in the preschool preschool:special_needs=no # Preschool has no special needs provision
Types of disabilities
We also need to specify, which type of disabilities these institutions accept, because a lot of them are specialized, or simply not equipped to handle everything. Possible values are the same as for special_needs=*, with 2 exceptions:
| Tag | Meaning |
|---|---|
special_needs:type=yes |
Take the value from special_needs=*
|
special_needs:type=no |
No support at all |
special_needs:type=separated |
Special need children are separated from non-special needs children |
special_needs:type=mixed |
Special need children are are in the same groups with non-special need children |
special_needs:type=limited |
Mixed, but not being able to fully support all the needs |
| Tag | Meaning |
|---|---|
special_needs:intellectual_disability=* |
For children with an intellectual disability, typically IQ < 60, Down's syndrome, etc. |
special_needs:emotional_behavioral_disorder=* |
For children with an emotional and/or behavioral disorder (EBD) e.g., social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, conduct disorder, ADHD |
special_needs:language_disorder=* |
For children with developmental language disorder (DLD) e.g., speech delay or language impairments |
special_needs:autism=* |
For children with autism spectrum disorder (e.g., early childhood autism, Asperger syndrome) |
special_needs:learning_disability=* |
For children with a learning disability not fitting one of the other categories (e.g. dyslexia, dyscalculia, disgraphia, APD, VPD, NVLD). Usually not applicable for nursery and kindergarten, but for after school care. |
special_needs:gifted_and_talented=* |
For intellectually gifted and talented Children. Usually not applicable for nursery and kindergarten, more so for after school care. This is not only for intellectually giften, but also for categories like arts, sports, and music |
| Physical disabilities | |
special_needs:physical_disability=* |
For children with a physical disability other than blindness or deafness |
special_needs:blind=* |
For blind and visually impaired children |
special_needs:deaf=* |
For deaf children and children with severe hearing loss |
| Rare disabilities | |
special_needs:chronic_illness=* |
For children with chronic illnesses requiring special care or adjustments in education. This includes cancer, diabetes, epilepsy, rheumatoid arthritis, heart defetcs, etc. |
special_needs:motor_disorder=* |
For children with motor disorders, such as dyspraxia, cerebral palsy, dystonia, tourette, ataxia, or coordination disorders |
special_needs:sensory_processing_disorder=* |
For children with sensory processing disorder, who have difficulty with sensory stimuli |
special_needs:mental_health_disorder=* |
For children with mental health disorders, such as depression, some anxiety disorders, or PTSD |
Support for talented and gifted
Institutions for talented and gifted don't usually support all type of talents, but are focused on a single area. This should also be tagged with classic main/yes/no:
| Tag | Meaning |
|---|---|
talent_focus_area:music=yes |
Special support for musically talented children. Can be further narrowed with musical_instrument:type=*
|
talent_focus_area:sport=yes |
Special support for athletically gifted children. Can be further narrowed with sport=*
|
talent_focus_area:arts=yes |
Special support for artistically gifted children. |
talent_focus_area:intellectually_gifted=yes |
Special support for intellectually gifted children, which can include separate groups, additional learning opportunities, science clubs, and more. |
Mixed groups
Standard age-specific tagging using nursery=* and preschool=* prefixes cannot describe facilities where children of different educational levels share the same groups.
Introducing a new, separate key that will be used for these mixed groups solves this issue. An unsolved problem is facilities that offer multiple combined groups with different age ranges - for example, one group serving children aged 18 months to 4 years, while another serves children aged 0 to 6 years.
Suggestion is to introduce combined_childcare=yes/no/only:
| Tag | Meaning |
|---|---|
combined_childcare=yes |
The facility offers combined and non-combined groups |
combined_childcare=no |
The facility offers no combined groups, nursery and pre-school are separated |
combined_childcare=only |
The facility offers only combined groups of nursery and pre-school |
combined_childcare:*=* would also serve as another prefix for those that offer these combined groups:
Examples
Facility offering combined and non-combined groups
nursery=yes preschool=yes combined_childcare=yes nursery:min_age=0 nursery:max_age=2 preschool:min_age=3 preschool:max_age=5 combined_childcare:min_age=1 combined_childcare:max_age=4
Facility offering combined groups only
nursery=yes preschool=yes combined_childcare=only combined_childcare:min_age=0 combined_childcare:max_age=5
Group sizes and count
It would be interesting to know the total amount of groups and children in each type of childcare (nursery/kindergarten/after school). But it would also be nice to tag each individual group in childcare, because sometimes, they differ by the group size, by whether they integrate special needs children, and also by the care hours offered. The first case, we can already tag using tags like nursery:capacity=60 (which still doesn't tell us if it's 4 groups with 15 children each, or 6 with 10), but the latter would be problematic. Since this usually requires insider knowledge, and can also change faster than any of the other properties, plus the tagging would probably be unnecessarily complicated, I'm against coming up with a tagging scheme for individual groups.
Involvement
Childcare facilities vary significantly in their expectations for parent participation. Some cooperative nurseries require parents to take on cleaning duties, organize events, or serve on committees, while private facilities typically operate without parent involvement. Tagging this information helps parents understand the commitment level required beyond fees.
Use parent_involvement=* to indicate the level of parent participation expected by the facility:
| Tag | Meaning |
|---|---|
parent_involvement=mandatory |
Parents are required to participate in facility activities (e.g., cleaning duties, fundraising, committee work) |
parent_involvement=optional |
Parents may volunteer for activities but participation is not required |
parent_involvement=no |
No parent participation is expected or requested; facility operates independently |
This also leaves room to further tag the type and frequency of the parent involvement, if someone ants to flesh this out.
Childcare Hours
Many childcare institutions offer structured care packages of specific durations rather than allowing children to stay for the entire opening period. For example, a facility might be open from 08:00 to 18:00 but offer only 4-hour, 6-hour, or 8-hour care packages. This is distinct from the facility's opening hours, which indicate when the building is accessible.
Use care_hours=* to specify the duration options available:
amenity=kindergarten nursery=yes preschool=yes opening_hours=Mo-Fr 07:00-18:00 nursery:care_hours=4;6;8 preschool:care_hours=6;8
In this example, the facility is open for 11 hours daily, but nursery children can be enrolled for 4, 6, or 8-hour packages, while preschool children have 6 or 8-hour options available.
Values:
- Use semicolon separation for multiple duration options
- Specify hours as numbers (e.g.,
4;6;8) - Apply as subkeys when different services offer different durations
Some tagging suggestions
Keep established tags
The two established tags nursery=yes, and after_school=yes should be kept. Additionally, I'm suggestion a third tag preschool that should serve as both prefix and key for early childhood education. The reason to use preschool instead of kindergarten is to avoid tagging conflicts that arise when amenity=kindergarten facilities offer multiple services.
The problem with using kindergarten as a key
Consider a facility offering both kindergarten and nursery services:
amenity=kindergarten kindergarten=yes nursery=yes capacity=120 kindergarten:capacity=90 nursery:capacity=30
This creates two immediate problems:
- Redundant tagging: Why tag
kindergarten=yeswhen it's alreadyamenity=kindergarten? - Subkey ambiguity Does the total
capacity=120include or exclude thekindergarten:capacity=90? It's a kindergarten with capacity 120, and the kindergarten's capacity is 90.
The solution with preschool
amenity=kindergarten preschool=yes nursery=yes capacity=120 preschool:capacity=90 nursery:capacity=30
This eliminates the redundancy (preschool=yes is distinct from amenity=kindergarten) and makes capacity relationships clearer (total capacity = preschool capacity + nursery capacity).
| Key | Type | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
nursery=yes/no |
Care only | Childcare for infants and toddlers (no formal education). The goal is to best compensate for the absence of parents, but without replacing them |
preschool=yes/no |
Formal education | Early childhood education following educational curriculum (ISCED level 0) |
after_school=yes/no |
Student supervision | Care for school-age children after regular school hours |
combined_childcare=yes/no/only |
Mixed provision | Groups that combine nursery care with preschool education |
Main tags
We distinguish between educational childcare (amenity=kindergarten) and care-only facilities (amenity=childcare) based on whether formal early education (ISCED level 0) is provided:
| Tag | Meaning |
|---|---|
amenity=kindergarten |
Facilities offering formal early education (isced:level=0)
|
amenity=childcare |
Facilities providing care without formal education |
amenity=childminder |
Home-based individual care in small groups |
All facilities should use explicit subkey tagging (nursery, preschool, after_school) regardless of primary amenity tag.
Use prefixes
If a childcare facility offers more than just a single type of care, We can and should use prefixes to further describe each of the different types. The prefixes should be
nursery:*=*,preschool:*=*,after_school:*=*,- and maybe
combined_childcare:*=*
This allows us the following constructs:
Recommended
nursery=yes nursery:capacity=25 nursery:opening_hours=Mo-Fr 12:00-17:00; SH Mo-Fr 08:00-16:30; PH off nursery:pedagogy=mainstream nursery:min_age=18 months nursery:max_age=3 nursery:phone=+1 2345 6789
Not recommended
nursery=yes capacity:nursery=25 opening_hours:nursery=Mo-Fr 12:00-17:00; SH Mo-Fr 08:00-16:30; PH off pedagogy:nursery=mainstream min_age:nursery=18 months max_age:nursery=3 phone:nursery=+1 2345 6789
Add local designation
It would be nice if we could add the local name for the designation of an institution, much like school=primary / school:DE=Grundschule. Because nursery=* is already a key on its own, I suggest to use type:designation=* instead, because we already use designation=* to "to record the legal classification of an object". Use only lower-case.
Examples:
nursery:designation=infant daycarefor Canadanursery:designation=krippefor a nursery in Germanypreschool:designation=pre-kfor a pre-kindergarten in the USpreschool:designation=kindergartenfor a regular kindergarten in Germany
I'm not completely certain how to handle cases where countries make finer distinctions within the same category. For example, in the US, both 'Kindergarten' and 'Pre-K' would map to our preschool=yes tag, but they represent different local designations. Using preschool:designation=kindergarten;pre-k with semicolon separation could cause parsing issues for data consumers, but currently seems to be the only option. This is how we handle it with schools as well.