The Knesset Education Committee on Monday will hold an emergency discussion following the tragedy that occurred last week at an unsupervised daycare facility in Jerusalem, where two infants tragically lost their lives.
The discussion will be held jointly with the Committee for the Rights of the Child and the Labor and Welfare Committee.
During the discussion, updated data from the Knesset’s Research and Information Center will be presented, revealing the number of young children in supervised daycare facilities across the country.
The data is gross data showing the number of children in a given area between the ages of three months and three years, minus the number of children in that same geographic area who are enrolled in official childcare centers.
Significantly, the paper acknowledges that, especially in communities where one-income families are common, many of the children not enrolled in official childcare are at home with their parents.
The data also excludes childcare frameworks in which less than seven children are enrolled. These frameworks do not require official licensing and supervision.
The information to be presented to the committee members shows that in the 2024-2025 school year, there is a gap of tens of thousands of young children between the total number of children under the age of three and the number enrolled in regulated frameworks.
In Jerusalem alone, this gap is estimated at around 55,000 children. Other cities such as Beit Shemesh, Bnei Brak, Rahat, and Tel Aviv-Jaffa also have thousands of young children not in regulated frameworks.
The data points to significant disparities between local authorities: In Jerusalem, only 21% of infants and toddlers are in supervised childcare centers, and in some peripheral and Arab communities, the percentage is lower than 15%. In contrast, in Ness Ziona, Rosh Pina, and Har Adar, more than 90% of infants and toddlers are enrolled in regulated frameworks.
Education Committee Chairman MK Tzvi Succot commented: "A reality in which, in Israel's capital city, only 21% of children of the relevant age are enrolled in a licensed daycare facility is shocking and requires urgent attention."
"I have requested the urgent convening of the Committee for an emergency discussion to provide immediate and long-term solutions to address this issue. We will not accept a reality in which hundreds of thousands of young children in Israel are cared for without government supervision. With G-d’s help, we will quickly advance the proposal to establish an Early Childhood Authority in Israel and we will regulate, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, early childhood care in a comprehensive manner."
In September, MK Meir Porush (United Torah Judaism) proposed a bill for free "education" from age three months - with a clause that daycare would become mandatory as soon as the paid portion of the mother's maternity leave is up.
Legal maternity leave is six months, but only 15 weeks are paid; the rest is unpaid. As a result, most working women return to work at just more than three months postpartum. It is from this age, three months, that daycare is subsidized for those who are eligible.
The bill aims to expand Israel's Compulsory Education Law to provide free and regulated "education" for all infants from the age of three months. Under the bill, a special curriculum would be developed to provide for the children's cognitive, emotional, social, and motor development.
The purported purpose of the bill is "to ensure that every infant and child in Israel receives proper and quality education, regardless of their family's economic status."
Under the proposed amendment, the Compulsory Education Law would be extended to include children from age three months to three years old, with the State of Israel assuming full responsibility for funding, operating, and supervising early childhood education frameworks. Currently, every child must be enrolled in a childcare center from the school year in which they would turn three by December 31. Parents who do not wish to enroll their three-year-old in childcare must request and receive approval to homeschool; such approval is not guaranteed even for those requesting it.
The idea to fully fund daycare for infants is not new: It was first suggested a few years ago, and in 2020 the Blue and White party adopted it as part of the party's platform.
Daycare for ages three months to three years is heavily subsidized, and government discounts are provided based on income per person and the number of hours a mother works. In the case of same-sex parents, the partners can choose which parent is listed as the mother, making it easier for them to receive the discount.
It is not yet clear if the free education for ages 0-3 will become mandatory, the way preschool for three- and four-year olds became mandatory six years after the implementation of the, "Free Education From Age Three" law.
That law was passed with a section that "education" for children ages three and four would become mandatory within six years, but the section was hidden from the public, and the law was instead touted as one which would save parents thousands of shekels annually.
The law was not immediately enforced after a six-year period, however, and only in the past few years have municipalities begun to interfere when parents choose not to send their young children to preschool or choose to send them to a private instead of public framework.