How to open a private kindergarten in Romania

If you’re thinking of starting a new business and you happen to like working with children, you might want to think about opening up a private kindergarten.

As you might expect, the legal requirements and procedures for obtaining a permit for a kindergarten are quite complex, since you’re going to work with small children and authorities will need to make sure you’re well-prepared and have the necessary resources.

The initial investment can be quite high, and it depends on whether you will own or rent the space where the kindergarten operates, and, of course, on the cost of real estate in the area you want to open it – it might be somewhere between EUR 75,000 and EUR 200,000. Depending on various factors, you may be able to access European funds to open the business. Considering the high initial investment and the monthly costs, it may take more than 5 years to get a return on your investment, but it is a stable, predictable business.

To choose a location, you may want to look at newly built residential neighborhoods. According to startups.ro, usually those who look for a space to open a kindergarten aim to find spaces of at least 200 sqm, to accommodate at least 15 children.

The process

The kindergarten cannot be registered independently as a business in the beginning – instead, it has to be managed through a local council, an association, a foundation or a commercial society and only after a few years can it break from the original organisation and be an independent entity.

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The first step is to apply for a permit with ARACIP (The Romanian Agency for Ensuring Quality of Pre-university Education). You’ll then get an online account on the agency’s platform, where you’ll be asked to upload a number of documents before a specific deadline. These documents represent the internal evaluation report, and include: a project for developing the institution over 3-5 years; educational offer; documents about the space and its resources; list of facilities; internal rulebook; details about staff.

After ARACIP checks your documents, it will set up an external evaluation, which includes a visit. If the evaluation is successful, the kindergarten will get a provisional authorisation.

After obtaining the provisional authorisation, the owner has to hire qualified staff, obtain legal status for the new educational institution and meet the requirements for accreditation standards. Be aware that the entire process may take a few months to a year.

The location you choose for the kindergarten is also very important, and its size determines the number of children that can attend – each child needs 6 m³ of space. The space also needs to have required facilities, such as restrooms for children and staff, a kitchen and a medical room. The Public Health Authority will check whether you meet the health & safety standards.

The permanent accreditation is obtained after about three years, and also requires the kindergarten to submit a series of documents showing the activity over the previous years and the plans for the future.

According to the Ministry of Education’s website, there are 437 private kindergartens in Romania, of which 134 are in Bucharest. In 2016-2017, there were over 521,000 children enrolled in both public and private kindergartens in Romania.

How much does it cost to get authorised?

ARACIP has three types of fees: authorisation fee – RON 6,326; accreditation fee – RON 9,489; periodic evaluation fee (including for educational organisations that provide educational activities according to an educational system of another country) – RON 4,745.