Advice for finding a kindergarten with open slots and enrolling a foreign child in NTPC

Taiwan Parenting
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Short version: What are my options for enrolling a 3-year-old in a New Taipei Kindergarten this late in the semester.

I am looking to enroll my child in a kindergarten for the 2025-6 year in New Taipei City. I’m a teacher at a private school, but their kindergarten only accepts 5-year-olds. My wife and I are foreigners and have no friends with children in the area, so my son speaks little Chinese. I planned to enroll him in a buxiban type kindergarten as a transition, but that turned out to be more than I could afford. So now the semester will start soon and I’m a bit stuck. I think, outside of hiring a private tutor, I have no choice but to put him into a kindergarten of some type.
I’ve been through the forum to get as much information as I could, but I still have a lot of questions. I’ll try to update with new info and new links (many old ones were dead) for anyone else in the future.

I suppose my first question should be, is it too late to get him into any of these types of kindergartens:
公立 (public)
非營利 (non-profit)
準公共 (quasi-public)
私立 (private)

For private, the rule used to be that foreigners were last in priority (in NTPC) and that meant that there were no slots in dense urban areas. For that reason, I didn’t even look. Now it seems that may have changed.

English (but confusing) handbook:

It appears that foreigners are equally in the lowest priority with locals. That could mean there was a chance, but I’ve obviously waited so late I’m not sure it’s worth trying. There may be some schools with open slots, but how to find them?
Taipei has a neat system listing availability for the different types of schools. Here’s one for public and non-profit schools:

However, all I could find for New Taipei was this:

Which gives lets you search by type and district and this harder to navigate one:
https://ap.ece.moe.edu.tw/webecems/pubSearch.aspx
Which does the same but with tuition fees.

However, I can’t find anything that lists availability. For public schools, I seem to have no choice but to try to call all (and not speaking Chinese or having a friend I could put this on) to find one with availability. That seems to be a waste of time this long after the lottery drawings.

As for quasi-pubic, I approached one of these schools nearby and was politely turned away for being a foreigner. Based on the posters outside, the students (or school) received subsidies from the government. The highest cost of tuition posed wasn’t high, but I was essentially told that it was closed to non-ROC kids. I assume that’s the case with most.

Non-profit: I’ve only recently learned what this it. It sounds affordable and some are nearby, but is it the same situation with quasi-public schools: Taiwanese citizen kids only?

Private: Looking at the tuition costs, some are not much cheaper than buxiban type kindys, but some are affordable. Again, there’s the problem of calling every without knowing availability and hoping someone can speak English. The website above lists addresses and phone numbers, so it’s doable. But I know from one across the street that the good ones fill up fast.

Is Taipei City an option for anything other than private schools? I don’t like that option because I’ve got to get to work early. I barely sleep as it is.

My preferred budget was $10,000 NT average per month, but I’m willing to go to $15,000.
I paid someone to act as a Chinese-speaking assistant before. I could try to do it again.

Thanks to the community for any advice. If nothing else, I hope this collate and updates some information. And please correct anything that is wrong.

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We are the same situation back 3 years ago.
Then I just went to ask this private school Private Xinci Kindergarten and they accepted my niece that time she is only 3yo and she start her day and love every single day going to that school, now my niece graduate in that kinder school. You can inquire at this school 新北市私立心慈幼兒園 (Hsinchuang) 2901-9153 but today they are close for 1 week off and back to work on 8/4

FYI: monthly is less than 10K + half year fee (as usual it will take 20k+) then you need to buy sport uniform.
Teachers are very caring and supportive to guide each child.

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Thank you for your help, though we live in Banqiao. Do you (or your brother/sister) speak Chinese? If not, how did you deal with the staff? Neither my wife nor I do very well.
How did your niece adapt if she didn’t speak Chinese at the time?

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Not that fluent and my niece doesn’t know how to speak the language at that time but you know kids they are like sponge and they can adapt easily without problem. I like the teachers and supervisors at this school they are mostly local people and I notice there is big difference between Taiwanese and local people they are more human with good heart.

During school days - you need to check the communication book everyday (in Chinese) so I need to improvised by using google translate if my son (@military) got spare time I take photo and ask what was require or sometimes I ask my hairdresser or ask my colleague. Magic! my niece now knows how to read and write. This Sep 1 she will enter elementary school and it was exciting another communication book for me to translate or perhaps she can dictate to me and will just sign it. :sweat_smile:

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I’m afraid this means the cutoff date was yesterday to get on a waiting list for public and non-profit schools. It looks like there were some schools in my area, though not close by. Private schools may still be an option.

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Foreign kids going to a public kindergarten is very difficult (to impossible). They have a priority list. Foreign kids are the 5th or 6th on the list from what I remember, i.e. if there’s a vacancy, anyone of a higher priority will go in before you even if you got on the waiting list before they did.

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Have a look at the link I posted with the priority list. It looks like all kids in a district are #9 in priority if they have no other special conditions, and non-ROC (foreigners) are in that category. It seems things have changed.

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Thanks. It was a while ago and in a different city when I talked to the schools. Maybe things have changed, or different city have different rules.

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Both. Schools are regulated by local cities or counties in addition to the Ministry of Education, so some details, like what to do with foreigners, differ. And things have changed. I didn’t even bother looking at NTPC public kindergartens because I didn’t think it was possible because it wasn’t 3 years ago. But now it is and I’m going to have to pay for a private school because I didn’t even try to enroll him.

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Forumosa was quiet on this one. I guess most of the people with kids are offline in the summer. For anyone who needs this in the future, I’ll give you the resolution.

I had someone call the schools that had previously announced that had openings, though the registration date had passed, to see if it was still possible to register. I also got a list of private schools in the area that didn’t charge too much from the NTPC kidedu link above. Some schools were full, but a couple said there would be a first-come-first-serve registration period starting on the 11th. That day, there was also a new PDF posted the the kidedu site listing the schools with slots remaining. Each school made their own announcement on their websites on the 8th. My wife and I registered for all of them. We were ready to go as soon as the form was open. I did our preferred school first and was done in 2 minutes. We had learned that they would attempt to call three times and if they couldn’t reach anyone, they would give the slot to someone else. In the end, we got accepted to all of them and withdrew the registration from all but our first choice.
If only we had started last May we may have gotten him into a closer one, but based on what I had read I was convinced that it wouldn’t be possible.
I made one remark above that turned out not to be true. Foreigners are still at the bottom of the priority list in New Taipei City. I thought they had made us equal to other residents, but it seems like they only added more people to the bottom of the list. Citizens in New Taipei but outside the district they want to enroll in are also at the bottom. So I think the procedure goes like this:
Everyone registers online. No queuing up outside the schools. This is the case for public schools and non-profit schools. Private schools still should be directly registered to. I’m not sure about quasi-public.

  1. Schools announce how many open spots they will have for the new year. Students already enrolled are guaranteed a spot if they don’t change schools.
  2. Everyone on the priority lists get accepted in order of priority.
  3. The remaining spots go by lottery to residents of the district who are citizens.
  4. If too many people apply to a school, the children are put on waiting lists while those who were admitted to more than one school withdraw from the others. Everything shifts around. If there are any spots left, they go to foreigners or citizens from other districts. (I didn’t try this so I’m not sure if this is automatic or if foreigners have to apply at the next stage.)
  5. Schools announce their remaining slots. I think parents have to apply to the school they want. I’m not sure if this is through the kidedu website or directly with the school. I think for former. I can’t remember if the slots or first-come-first serve, by lottery, or if each school sets their own policy. In any case, this ends about a month before the semester starts.
  6. A week or so later, schools announce any remaining spots for the last chance to register. Registrations are handled by each school. All the ones we applied to were by Google form. Only one asked for documents to be uploaded. The others confirmed later.

That’s the procedure if anyone else needs to know.

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I can’t edit my earlier posts, but these two statements are incorrect. Taiwanese citizens who live in the district (the largest groups applying) are priority #8. Foreigners are still last in priority, but equally last with citizens outside the district.

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