Student Care for School-Age Children

If both parents work and your child is in primary or lower-secondary school, the after-school hours are a real logistics problem — classes finish in the early afternoon, but the workday does not. The usual answer in Singapore is a Student Care Centre (SCC). Any school-age child can attend one, but the government subsidy that makes them affordable for locals is tied to citizenship, so a newcomer family needs to budget for the full fee. Here is how the system works, what it costs, and how to enrol, from the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF).

What a student care centre is

An SCC looks after school-going children outside school hours. MSF describes SCCs as providing care and supervision to school-going children outside of school hours, run by commercial companies or Social Service Agencies and located within schools or the community. The day is practical rather than academic: all SCCs provide meals and homework supervision, and many add enrichment, character programmes or recreational activities on top.

The age band is set by the subsidy rules even if a centre is flexible: SCCs cover children aged 7 to 14 years — Primary 1 to Secondary 2 — in the year care starts. Children with special needs are served by Special Student Care Centres (SSCCs), which cover ages 7 to 18 and are listed via SG Enable.

What student care costs

Unlike preschool, student-care fees are not set against a national cap — each operator prices its own place, so fees vary from centre to centre. You can see that variation in the government’s own subsidy tables, which split centres charging below S$295 a month from those at S$295 and above. In practice, school-based centres inside an MOE school tend to be the most affordable, while community and commercial centres — often with longer hours or transport — set higher rates. Expect a monthly fee (with GST), a one-off registration fee and a refundable deposit, so always ask a centre for its full fee sheet before enrolling.

The decisive point for a newcomer is what sits on top of that fee — or rather, what does not. Without the SCFA subsidy (below), a foreign family pays the centre’s published fee in full; an eligible lower-income citizen family can have up to 98% of it covered, worth up to S$290 a month.

Who gets the SCFA subsidy, and who does not

The Student Care Fee Assistance (SCFA) scheme is what makes student care cheap for lower-income local families — and it is where most newcomers are shut out. The first condition is citizenship: SCFA requires the child to be a Singapore Citizen, or a PR with at least one immediate family member in the same household who is a Singapore Citizen. A purely foreign child does not meet this, so a typical expat family cannot claim SCFA at all — the fee the centre quotes is simply what you pay.

The SCFA gate and the amounts it pays.

For families who do qualify, the other conditions are that both parents each work at least 56 hours a month, the child attends an MSF-registered SCC, and household income is within the limit. Currently that limit is a gross household income of S$4,500 or a per capita income of S$1,125; from January 2027 it rises to S$6,500 (or S$1,625 per capita). Applications are means-tested through HOMES and submitted via SupportGoWhere at least six months before the intended start.

The help, where it applies, is substantial: a monthly subsidy of up to S$290 (reaching 98% of the fee at the lowest incomes) and a one-time Start-Up Grant of up to S$400 per child toward the deposit, registration and uniforms. Note the subsidy bands differ for centres charging below S$295 versus S$295 and above, and a minimum attendance rate — 30% in June and December, 50% in other months — is required to keep the monthly subsidy.

School-based vs community centres

For a newcomer paying full fees, the centre type matters more than the brand. School-based centres sit inside an MOE school, take that school’s pupils, and tend to publish the lowest fees. Community and commercial centres are open more broadly, may offer longer hours or transport, and set their own, often higher, rates. If budget is the priority and your child’s school has an in-school centre with places, that is usually the cheapest route.

How to find and enrol

1. Find centres near you. Use MSF’s Student Care Centre Locator, and check whether your child’s own school has an in-school SCC with vacancies.
2. Ask each centre for its full fee sheet — monthly fee, GST, registration, deposit, holiday surcharge and hours — so you can compare like for like.
3. Enrol directly with the centre and pay the deposit to secure the place; places in popular school-based centres go early.
4. Apply for SCFA only if your child qualifies (citizen, or PR with a citizen family member) via SupportGoWhere, six months ahead.
5. For a child with special needs, look at a Special Student Care Centre through SG Enable instead.

For the wider schooling picture — local versus international, AEIS and the Student’s Pass — see international vs local schools. New arrivals sorting the whole family setup may also want having a baby in Singapore if a younger child is on the way.

Frequently asked questions

Can my foreign child attend a student care centre? Yes. Any school-age child can enrol, places permitting. What a foreign child cannot usually get is the SCFA subsidy, which is for citizen children (or PRs with a citizen family member).

Are student care fees capped like preschool fees? No. There is no national fee cap; each operator sets its own fee. School-based centres in MOE schools tend to be the cheapest; community and commercial centres can cost more.

Do I pay during the school holidays? Yes, in most cases — a place is usually charged as a continuing monthly fee rather than per day of attendance. Ask each centre how it handles the June and December holidays and any closure-day charges before you sign up.

What ages do student care centres take? Children aged 7 to 14, from Primary 1 to Secondary 2. Special Student Care Centres take children aged 7 to 18.

What changes in 2027? From January 2027 the SCFA income ceiling rises to a gross household income of S$6,500 (or S$1,625 per capita), so more qualifying families will get some subsidy — but the citizenship condition still applies.

General information only, from MSF, SupportGoWhere and published MOE-school fee sheets, with the date each figure was checked. Fees vary by centre and change over time — confirm the current figure with the specific student care centre.