Gan in Jerusalem: Types, Costs, Registration Dates and What to Expect

Early childhood in Israel splits cleanly in two. Up to age three, care is something you buy — privately, or in a supervised nursery where the state pays part of the bill. From age three it is education, it is compulsory, and the core hours are free. The two halves have different regulators, different costs, different registration windows and different rules, which is why the system feels confusing for about a year and then suddenly makes sense.

This guide covers both: what the frameworks are, what they cost, when to look and apply, how to apply, and what to expect from each kind once your child is in.

Before the numbers: tuition caps, subsidy tiers and tzaharon prices are set annually and change. Every figure below is labelled with the year it applies to, and links the official page. Check the current table before you budget.

The frameworks, by age

Ages 0–3 are maon (מעון, a day nursery), mishpachton (משפחתון, a home-based group of up to five toddlers with one trained carer), a private gan, or a nanny. Supervised maonot and mishpachtonim take children from three months; under six months a child needs medical clearance.

From age three there are three municipal preschool years: trom-trom chova at 3, trom chova at 4 and chova at 5, the compulsory year before first grade. Private gans exist for these ages too, at private-gan prices. Which year your child enters is set by birth year, not by birthday: for the 2026/27 year (תשפ"ז) that means children born in 2023, 2022 and 2021 respectively.

Supervised or not: the thing to check first

A nursery for under-threes is supervised when it holds a semel maon (סמל מעון), a licence number from the supervising ministry. A licensed nursery is inspected, its tuition is capped by the state, it is required to have silent video cameras running whenever toddlers are present, and only licensed places can receive the subsidy. You can look a nursery up on the ministry's search tool before you sign anything.

This matters more in Jerusalem than almost anywhere. At a Knesset hearing in January 2026, following the deaths of two babies at an unlicensed nursery in Romema, figures presented showed that about 79% of Jerusalem's under-threes are in unsupervised frameworks — the highest share of the big cities. Under the 2018 supervision law, running a toddler nursery without a licence is a criminal offence, and any framework with seven or more toddlers must hold a licence. Plenty of good carers operate small, legal mishpachtonim; the point is to ask the question and check the number rather than assume.

• Ministry of Labour nursery search — check a specific maon or mishpachton.
• Jerusalem's list of maonot and mishpachtonim — by neighbourhood, with hours, group size and contacts (Hebrew).

What it costs

Maon and mishpachton (0–3). In a supervised framework, tuition is capped by the Ministry of Labour by age band and billed over eleven months, and the state pays part of it through the subsidy tiers (דרגות סבסוד). Tiers run from 3 to 15 and are worth roughly ₪400–2,500 a month; tier 3 is the largest and tiers 11–12 receive nothing. Your tier is set by per-capita household income — both parents' gross income divided by the number of people in the household — and families with two or more children enrolled move down one tier.

Both parents must fall into a qualifying category (working, studying, new immigrant, returning resident, job-seeker, conscript, national service, or on a disability or income-support pension), the child must be under two years and nine months on 1 September, and the framework must be attended at least five days a week until 16:00. File the application even if you expect nothing — it is required either way, and the subsidy is now paid retroactively from the child's entry date rather than from the day you applied.

New olim: a new immigrant parent gets a fixed tier 3 with no income test for up to two years from the date of aliyah, provided both parents are in ulpan at 24 hours a week or more, both are registered job-seekers, or one of each. Places are still limited by availability in the city, so apply early. See the new olim checklist for the other clocks that start on your aliyah date.

• Subsidy criteria and application
• Eligibility check and income simulator
• The tuition rates table (PDF, updated yearly)

A supervised maon may charge a registration fee — capped at ₪133 as published in 2024 — and may not hold advance payments above ₪570. Private maonot, mishpachtonim and gans set their own fees and are not capped. Published price lists for private care at these ages range widely, from roughly ₪2,600 to ₪5,500 a month depending on age and framework, and sources disagree sharply; treat any number you read, including that one, as a starting point and ask each place for its own fee, what it includes, how many months you pay for, and what happens in August.

Municipal gan (3–5). Education from age three is free under the Compulsory Education Law, and that is real: registration costs nothing, no conditional payment may be demanded at enrolment, and parents may not be charged tuition for the core hours even if they offer. What you do pay for is everything around it, within ceilings the Ministry of Education publishes each year — personal accident insurance (about ₪73 one-off in the 2025/26 circular), a trip fee charged only if the trip happens, a shared-food contribution, and optional enrichment hours (תל"ן) that need the agreement of nearly all the parents. Some cities bundle these into a single early-year charge; ask your gan for the itemised list.

Tzaharon (afternoon care) is the real cost of the preschool years. The supervised maximum for a basic gan tzaharon to 16:00 — including a hot lunch, two weekly activities and a teacher plus assistant — was ₪672 a month in 2025/26, rising to ₪722 where enrolment is below the threshold, and up to ₪935 for an expanded programme. Subsidised Nitzanim tzaharonim are allocated by the municipality's socio-economic cluster. In Jerusalem they are run by Lavy, the municipal education corporation: registration is separate from gan registration, there is no single-day option and no refund for absence.

Summer. July is largely covered by a subsidised, supervised kaytana for gan children, running Sunday to Thursday for about three weeks with an optional long day at extra cost. August is the gap every Jerusalem parent plans for, and it is not covered by the municipal framework — see the summer camps guide for how families cover it.

When to look, and when to apply

Municipal gan: registration for the following September opens in a fixed national window in the winter — in recent years mid-January to early February — and in Jerusalem it is done online. The order in which you register inside the window makes no difference, so there is nothing to gain from refreshing the page at midnight. Dates are announced each year on the municipality's education pages.

Maon: registration runs in its own window, usually a few weeks after the gan window, through the Ministry of Labour, followed by admission committees. A child registered after the window can only be placed once the committees have finished, and only if there is room.

Private gans and mishpachtonim: these are first-come and fill early; parents in the Anglo neighbourhoods report visiting and putting down deposits months before the municipal window even opens. If you want a specific private place, ask in the autumn for the following year.

Placement and appeals. The education department assigns children by stream, registration zone and distance from home — there is no maximum distance set in law. Results come out in the early summer, with a short appeal (ערר) window straight afterwards and final placements by the end of July. An appeal is strongest when you can document a medical or developmental need, a genuine distance hardship, a move, or a sibling in another gan.

If you miss the window, the municipality writes to you requiring registration within seven days, and if nothing happens it assigns the nearest gan with space. Jerusalem runs a late-registration route for families who arrive mid-year.

• Jerusalem education registration — the window and the online form
• Maon registration — Ministry of Labour
• Late and mid-year registration in Jerusalem

How to apply, step by step

• Register online during the window at the municipal portal. Nefesh B'Nefesh advises that olim and new residents registering for the first time do it in person at the Machleket HaChinuch (education department), so documents can be presented.
• Bring: your teudat zehut with the sefach (ספח, the appendix listing your children); proof of address — an arnona bill, lease or purchase contract; and an address confirmation from Bituach Leumi. A child without an Israeli ID can be identified by passport or birth certificate. Single parents need a custody document and a notarised address affidavit.
• Registration must be done by a parent or guardian. A gan cannot register a child on your behalf.
• For a maon: register with the nursery itself, then file the subsidy application online — one per child, with both parents authorising the Bituach Leumi income check.
• Arriving mid-year: you can register once you have a lease or purchase agreement. If the gan you are assigned does not suit, appeal, and keep calling — places move between June and September.

The streams, and what each is like

Municipal gans come in the same streams as the schools, and the stream is the first thing the registration form asks. The municipality must honour your choice of stream; it only tries to honour your choice of location.

• Mamlachti (state, secular) and mamlachti dati (state religious) are the two main tracks; some areas also have a torani option, which is state religious with a heavier limudei kodesh emphasis and often a longer day.
• Charedi gans in Jerusalem run through the municipality's charedi education division and through networks such as Chinuch Atzmai and Shuvu, usually separated into boys' and girls' gans. Registration typically goes through the gan or network directly rather than the general municipal form, and funding — and so tuition — differs by whether a network is state-charedi, recognised-unofficial or independent.
• TALI (תל"י) sits inside the state secular system with enhanced, pluralistic Jewish studies, and has a strong presence in Jerusalem.
• Anthroposophic (Waldorf) gans are an established cluster here: Amutat Adam runs several, Gan Shaked operates in Katamon, and Gan HaMinyan in Ein Kerem is religious-anthroposophic. Expect mixed ages, natural materials, a strong rhythm to the day and a fee, since most are private.
• Bilingual Jewish-Arab education runs through Hand in Hand, which began with a Jerusalem preschool in 1998 and teaches with two teachers in the room, each in their own language.
• English-speaking and bilingual English gans exist in the Anglo neighbourhoods, almost entirely as private gans; community listings are the practical way to find them. Worth knowing that Nefesh B'Nefesh actively advises against English-language programmes for young children, on the grounds that delaying Hebrew by a year does not help a child who will be in the Israeli system.
• Special education (חינוך מיוחד) is decided by an eligibility and characterisation committee, then a placement committee. You must be invited to the first, you may bring professional opinions, and it is worth stating your preferred framework before the hearing rather than after. Children who need physical accessibility adaptations can register up to fifteen months ahead.

What to expect day to day

• Hours. Municipal gan opens around 7:15–7:45 and finishes early afternoon — roughly 13:20 for trom chova and 14:00 for chova, with a short Friday around 12:40 in gans that run six days. The year runs from 1 September to the end of June. The Friday and erev chag finishing times are the biggest shock for parents used to a full working day.
• Group size. A municipal gan may hold up to 35 children with a ganenet and a sayaat, and a second assistant where there are 30 or more three- and four-year-olds. Ministry guidance for that age recommends much smaller groups, and the gap between the two numbers is a fair thing to ask about on a visit. Maonot and mishpachtonim are much smaller by law.
• Food. In municipal gan you send a snack for mid-morning — a sandwich, fruit or vegetable, and a water bottle your child can open alone. Staff are honest about why: two adults cannot open 35 yogurts. Maonot and tzaharonim normally serve a hot lunch.
• Starting. Three- and four-year-olds usually get a gradual entry over the first few days, with shortened hours.
• The chagim. Gan closes for long stretches. In the current year gans broke from 25 September through 3 October for Sukkot, Chanukah runs 6–12 December 2026, Purim 23–24 March 2027 and Pesach 13–28 April 2027. Gans follow their own ministry circular, and charedi and recognised-unofficial institutions keep different dates — check yours rather than the national calendar.
• Money and admin. Fees are normally collected by hora'at keva (standing bank order). Most communication happens in a parents' WhatsApp group, in Hebrew, and it is where you will hear about dress-up days and trips first.

What to ask when you visit

• Is the framework licensed, and what is the semel maon? (For under-threes, ask to see it.)
• How many children, how many adults, and who covers when someone is off sick?
• What does a normal day look like, and how much of it is outdoors?
• How is Hebrew handled for a child who has none yet?
• Which customs and holidays are observed, and how is food and kashrut handled?
• What exactly do parents pay beyond tuition, and when?
• Is there a tzaharon on site, who runs it, and until what time?
• How do parents hear about the day — a group, a note, a meeting?
• What happens in July and August?

Where to get help

The municipality's early childhood portal lists frameworks by neighbourhood, and the city hotline is 106; the municipality guide explains which department does what. Nefesh B'Nefesh runs a post-aliyah helpline on *3680 and publishes its own gan walkthrough. For the years after gan, see the schools guide, and for the vocabulary you will meet on the forms, the Hebrew words guide. If something here is out of date or you know a framework worth listing, tell us.