ECCE Scheme

The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) scheme provides early childhood care and education for children of pre-school age. The ECCE scheme is designed to provide children with appropriate programme-based activities in the two years before they start primary school. Participation in a pre-school programme provides children with their first formal experiences of learning; the starting point of their education and social development outside the home, in a play-based environment. Children who avail of pre-school are more likely to be ready for school and a formal learning and social environment.
The school year is normally from September to June
The following is a summary of the changes to the ECCE programme with effect from September 2018:

• All eligible children will receive two full programme years
• Age of eligibility reduced from 3 years to 2 years and 8 months
• Upper age limit remains 5 years and 6 months
• Number of enrolment points changed from three to one in September

Eligibility Criteria

The age criteria for the current and coming ECCE pre-school year can be found on,
https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/2459ee-early-childhood-care-and-education-programme-ecce/?referrer=/ecce/calculator/ecce-calculator.html/

For any further information on the ECCE programme please visit http://www.dcya.gov.ie
The objective of the ECCE programme is to make early learning in a formal setting available to eligible children in the two years before they commence primary school. To achieve this, services participating in this scheme are required to provide age appropriate activities and programmes to children within a particular cohort. For this reason, it is necessary to set minimum and maximum limits to the age range within which children will qualify to participate in the programme.