Suggestion of schools for expat babies - Sao Paulo City

Unfortunately in São Paulo there are two kinds of "creches" for infants and young children below the normal age of school enrollment; the public daycare centers operated by the municipal government which are overcrowded and thus have a waiting list of a couple of years, and the private ones that are extremely expensive - especially the better ones.

Women who do not have jobs outside the home do not qualify for public daycare centers and this creates a Catch 22 situation, they can't work because they don't qualify for daycare, they don't qualify for daycare because they don't work, and on, and on, and on! In my case it was necessary to obtain a Court Order to get a daycare spot for my (then 3 year old) son and even with the Order it took almost another year before they actually provided him with a spot in a daycare quite a long way from our home.

Daycare in São Paulo is the responsibilty of the Municipal Secretary of Education and the law requires that the City of São Paulo put all children of school age in slots, without fail; and I must say they really do obey that law. The law does not however obligate them to provide the daycare in the same way so they really do tend to ignore the issue altogether. Sadly, many moms are finding it necessary to obtain Court Orders, which the city is reluctant to comply with; and when they do - it is only to bump the person with the Court Order up about 80 - 100 slots on the waiting list. This does absolutely nothing to help the family that needs the daycare and it also penalizes all the other families who have been on the waiting list for available spaces for years.

The former Mayor (Gilberto Kassab) bragged profusely about the city creating 5000 new daycare slots. Where they were created - if they were really created - I will never know because it did absolutely nothing to improve the situation. Perhaps he just forgot to tell the public that those 5000 slots were going to be set aside for those moms who had the courage to take the city to court over the issue of daycare and obtain Court Orders, who knows?    Anyway, that's clearly how it looks.

Welcome to the REAL Brazil!!!

Cheers,
William James Woodward, EB Experts Team