Checking a preschool licence, ECDA childminding pilot and home-based care

Comparing an ECDA-licensed preschool, a childminder under ECDA's childminding pilot and a home-based carer you arrange yourself? The three come with different kinds of published paper. A licensed preschool shows a licence class, a licence tenure you can look up and a named assessment framework. A pilot childminder sits under published eligibility rules, a named appointed operator, a stated limit on how many infants one carer may hold, and an ECDA-linked portal that finds services by postal code. A privately arranged carer has no such register. ^{[1] [2]}

On 3 September 2026, CNA broadcast ECDA's own sector overview, Building A Good Start. Its description says Singapore's preschool sector has moved from uneven provision and varying standards into a professionalised, highly regulated system focused on children's development and wellbeing, and that the programme examines preschool's changing role from care and supervision to nurturing development and wellbeing, alongside educator workload and financial pressures on families. It also says the sector has enough places for 80 per cent of Singaporean children. That is the agency describing its own purpose, not evidence about your child or about a place near you. ^[3]

Three arrangements, one threshold

First, how far ECDA's reach extends. ECDA describes itself as the regulatory and developmental agency for Singapore's early childhood sector, overseeing key aspects of children's development below the age of seven across kindergartens and child care centres. Launched on 1 April 2013, it is an autonomous agency jointly overseen by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Social and Family Development, and hosted under MSF. Age decides which set of rules applies to your child. ^[4]

The threshold decides whether a licence exists at all. Any paid service entailing the regular care or education of five or more children under seven must be licensed by ECDA, which issues Class A for infant care, Class B for child care and Class C for kindergarten; one preschool may hold more than one class. A hypothetical example: a fourteen-month-old Singapore Citizen infant could ask an appointed pilot operator about a place, while a three-year-old sibling would fall outside the pilot's infant rules entirely. ^{[1] [2]}

Licensed preschool: the records you can look up

The licence class fixes the ages a centre may serve. Class A infant care centres take children aged 2 months to 18 months, with a full-day programme from 7 am to 7 pm, available 5 or 5½ days a week excluding Sundays and gazetted public holidays. Class B child care centres and Class C kindergartens take children from 18 months to below 7 years, kindergartens on a half-day programme. Licensed centres must display their licence where you can easily see it, and no preschool may advertise, operate or accept payment without a valid licence under the ECDC Act. ^{[5] [1] [6] [7]}

Tenure is the second published record: ECDA issues licences lasting 6, 12, 24 or 36 months depending on how well a preschool meets regulatory requirements, gives every new preschool a default 12-month licence, and assesses five areas at issue or renewal — approval to operate, staff provision and quality, environment and facilities, safety, health and hygiene, and school experience. ECDA's Preschool Search, hosted on LifeSG, is where you look up tenure, and a dated SPARK list recorded 843 centres at Certification and 145 at Commendation, correct as of 30 September 2026. ECDA cautions that a longer licence is not the only thing to consider. ^{[1] [6] [8]}

What no register answers

Some questions have no public register, and ECDA's parent guidance lists them: find out who the key staff caring for your child will be, ask about the staff-child ratio and whether staff have the requisite training and experience, and observe how teachers interact with the children. On safety, ECDA states that accidents do occur sometimes even with adequate and appropriate measures in place, and advises asking about the centre's emergency arrangements, how it typically responds, and whether CCTV is installed and how parents may review footage. ^[5]

Enrolment, withdrawal and fee policies sit with the centre, usually in the handbook for parents or under the terms and conditions on enrolment forms, which ECDA advises reading before entering any contractual agreement. Below that five-child licensing threshold, a carer you engage privately has no licence class, licence tenure, accreditation record or published fee schedule to look up either. What replaces the record is your own: written terms on hours, fees, notice and how the arrangement ends, references you check yourself, and unhurried time with the carer. ^{[5] [1]}

Childminding pilot: what a parent can ask for

For infants, the arrangement with published rules is ECDA's Childminding Pilot, running from 1 December 2024 to 31 December 2027. Eligibility is narrow: Singapore Citizen infants aged 2 to 18 months not concurrently enrolled in ECDA-licensed infant care centres. ECDA has appointed three operators and lists their contact details, and each childminder may care for one to three infants at any one time, at their home or in a community space. Parents register by contacting the appointed operators directly, or by entering their postal code in the ECDA-linked portal to find nearby childminding services. ^[2]

Behind that sit checks you can ask about: ECDA conducts background checks on childminders before deployment; operators must assess childminder suitability, put child-safe practice guidelines in place and follow the Industry Standards ECDA co-developed with them, covering service standards, infant health and safety, and communications with parents. Childminders must complete mandatory training such as infant first aid. So before you commit: a licensed preschool gives you licence class, tenure and the five assessment areas; a pilot infant gives you eligibility, a named operator and those Industry Standards; a private carer gives you your own contract and references — and once a child is over 18 months old, the pilot's published rules no longer apply. ^[2]

Sources

EduNanny Editorial · AI-assisted research and writing, reviewed by our automated editorial team. Sources checked 2026-10-10. Featured image: AI-generated editorial illustration.