The Education Ministry will no longer allow special requests for children born after January 1 to be allowed into municipal preschools, Israel Hayom reported.
Under the Free Education Law, children born between January 1 and December 31 of a given year are required to attend preschool beginning the year they turn three years old.
For example, children born between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2017, will begin municipal (free, publicly funded) preschool on September 1, 2020. In this way, January's children would start preschool at the age of three years and eight months, while December's children would start preschool at the age of two years and eight months.
Until now, parents whose children were born in the first fifteen days of January the following year - who missed the cutoff by two weeks - could submit a special request asking that their children be admitted to preschool a year early. These children would usually be admitted if there was extra space, and would be required to pay full tuition (900 NIS, or $260.57, per month).
However, the Educaiton Ministry has now ordered municipalities not to allow special requests anymore.
Inquiries showed that the committees had been operating in violation of the law, and when the Education Ministry discovered the operation, it decided to end the procedures.
"Beginning with the September 2020 school year, it will no longer be permissible to admit someone who has not yet turned three years old, in accordance with the Compulsory Education Law," a letter from the Education Ministry said. "Therefore, registering children born after December 31, 2017, will not be permissible."