The Ministry of National Education informs that, in order to enroll children aged between 3 and 6 in preschool education, the following stages will take place successively at the level of each educational unit:

• re-enrollment of children who are attending kindergarten this school year and wish to attend it in the 2018-2019 school year as well – will start on May 7;
• enrollment of new children will take place starting May 21.

The schedule for re-enrollments and enrollments will be set by the management of the educational unit and will be posted, in a visible place, in each kindergarten, to inform parents and interested public, including on the website (if available), and possibly on the websites of school inspectorates.

The occupancy of free spots, after the re-enrollment process, will usually be done in descending order of age groups, as follows: large group (5-year-old children), middle group (4-year-old children), and small group (3-year-old children). Based on Government Decision no. 1.252/2012 and within the limits of available spots, children aged between 2 and 3 may also be enrolled in the small group.

If, in an educational unit, the number of enrollment requests is higher than the number of available spots, general tie-breaking criteria and specific tie-breaking criteria will be successively applied.

The general tie-breaking criteria are the following:

• the existence of a document proving that a child is orphaned of both parents (the situation of children coming from an orphanage/a placement center/family placement is assimilated to the situation of orphaned children of both parents);
• the existence of a document proving that the child is orphaned of one parent;
• the existence of a brother/sister enrolled in the respective educational unit;
• the existence of a medical certificate certifying the child’s degree of disability.

The specific tie-breaking criteria (developed by each preschool educational unit, approved by its Board of Administration and endorsed by the County School Inspectorate or that of the municipality of Bucharest by May 18) cannot be discriminatory and cannot include pre-enrollment lists. Also, specific tie-breaking criteria will be applied only after exhausting the general criteria.

To ensure transparency of the re-enrollment/enrollment process, the management of preschool educational units will display, in a visible place, for all interested, the following information:

• the capacity of the institution (number of children it was designed for);
• the number of spots approved by the schooling plan for the 2018-2019 school year (by age groups: small, middle, large);
• the general and specific criteria for children’s enrollment;
• the number of children re-enrolled/enrolled daily (during the set period) out of the total available.

We mention that private preschool educational units also have the obligation to display, in a visible place, information regarding their status, namely if they are authorized to operate provisionally or are accredited by the Agency for Quality Assurance in Pre-University Education (ARACIP).