Development support around age 3: the certificate, the free period, and the ward desk

Around age 3 a ward may offer two different appointments that families hear about in the same month. One is the infant health check. The pages read for this article do not publish its date, its items, or a rule for extra staff inside a kindergarten class (加配, kahai). Ota's parenting menu points at a separate health section. Call that desk for the check.

What these pages do publish is developmental support (児童発達支援, jido hattatsu shien), the service behind the word 療育 (ryoiku). Ota describes it as support, under the Child Welfare Act, for a child whose development is a concern or who has a disability. You cannot start it by walking into a centre. You need a day-service recipient certificate (通所受給者証, tsusho jukyushasho).

What the service is

Ota's page sets these monthly caps. The ward can go above a cap only when it decides the extra days are essential, and it asks you to call before you request that.

Service	What it is	Ota's cap
Children's development support (児童発達支援)	Daily-living skills, group life, and other support. Treatment can be included when a child with a physical disability needs therapy or medical management.	23 days a month
Home-visit support (居宅訪問型児童発達支援)	A visit at home for a child who cannot readily go out to a centre.	10 days a month
Visit to the daycare (保育所等訪問支援)	A specialist comes to the daycare to support life in the group.	5 days a month
After-school day service (放課後等デイサービス)	After school or on holidays, for a child enrolled in a school under the School Education Act other than a kindergarten or a university, or in a vocational or miscellaneous school.	The cap cell on this page is blank

The national notice adds residential disability facilities for children and medical-type development support. Food and medical bills stay outside the free period.

When the fee becomes zero

From 1 October 2019, the user charge for these preschool services is free for three years. Ota's sentence:

無償化の対象となる期間は、満3歳になって初めての4月1日から小学校入学までの、3年間です。

A child who turns 3 in June waits until the next 1 April. The Agency describes the same three years. Kindergarten or daycare plus one of these services can both be free. The provider checks the birthday, Ota marks the certificate 無償化対象児, and the national waiver needs no new form:

無償化にあたり、手続きは必要ありません。

You still pay food, medical costs, and other real costs. The waiver is the user charge only.

From 1 September 2025 Ota applies a Tokyo waiver for ages 0–2 until that April, with no form to switch from Tokyo's earlier second-child waiver.

Before a waiver applies, Ota charges the lower of 10% or a monthly cap from the parent's resident-register household. The tax figure is before the housing-loan and donation credits, with a deemed deduction for children under 16 and for specific dependents aged 16 to 18.

Ota's band	Household	Monthly cap
Livelihood protection	Receiving livelihood protection	¥0
Low income	No resident tax	¥0
General 1	Resident tax, income-based portion under ¥280,000	¥4,600
General 2	Income-based portion ¥280,000 or more	¥37,200

Consultation support has no user charge. Ota refunds a month that goes over the household base (¥37,200 when a prosthetic device is also used; otherwise the higher certificate cap). A preschool child can also get a multi-child reduction for an older sibling in daycare or kindergarten (bring a proof of attendance), an older preschool sibling using this service, or, where income-based tax is under ¥77,101, any older sibling in the household.

What to do in Ota, and how long it takes

Ota asks you to call before you come, then to apply in person.

1. Call the benefits desk, 03-5744-1316, and confirm the papers.
2. Apply at 障害福祉課 認定・給付担当, Ota Ward Office 1st floor, window 11-1, weekdays 8:30–17:00. Bring one document that shows the support is needed: a physical disability handbook, a rehabilitation handbook (愛の手帳, aino techo), a mental-health handbook, a doctor's diagnosis, or a doctor's opinion. Bring My Number for everyone in the household, and the household head's identity papers (one with a photo, or two without).
3. The ward gives you a request to submit a support-plan draft. A designated consultation office can write it, or you can write a self-plan (セルフプラン) from the ward's sample. Keep a copy.
4. Hand the plan in. If a consultation office wrote it, their application goes in with it.
5. The ward decides from the plan, the carer's situation, and what you want to use. The certificate takes about a month to arrive. The seal on it is a black electronic seal.
6. Contract with the centre and show them the certificate.

The ward's benefits address is 大田区蒲田5-13-14. A lost certificate can be reissued online or by post.

Other wards do not copy Ota's form

Tokyo's table, updated 10 April 2026, shows where each municipality handles its project and how the certificate is labelled. The bill goes to the municipality that issued the certificate. Ota's row says no extra procedure, and the label is the Tokyo waiver until the day before the national free period. Minato's row requires a parent application, with papers posted to the people concerned. Shinjuku's row needs no extra procedure and labels ages 0–2. Read your row. The project's call centre is 0120-612-898, weekdays 9:00–17:00. Cities paid by the metropolitan government use an online form and that same line.

That Tokyo project and the national waiver are different. Ota's free-period page is the one that says the national waiver needs nothing new.

What goes wrong

• Waiting for the 3-year health check to open this service. The check is a different desk, and these pages do not schedule it.
• Starting at a centre with no certificate. Ota says the certificate comes first, and the contract comes after it arrives.
• Assuming every ward's row says "no procedure." Minato's row says an application is required.
• Budgeting food and medical care at zero because the user charge is waived.
• Asking for more than the day cap without calling first. Ota wants that conversation before the application.

What to do now