Special Student Care Centres: After-School Care for a Child in a SPED School

Dictionary: SPED · SG Enable · MSF

Who can go to an SSCC

Your child can apply if they are:

1. A Singapore Citizen or a Permanent Resident (PR). A PR child needs at least one immediate family member who is a citizen. Immediate family means parents, a spouse or children, including step-parents and step-children.
2. Aged 7 to 18.
3. Attending a SPED school. Our guide to SPED schools in Singapore lists them all.
4. Certified by a doctor to have a disability. This is why the SSCC asks for your child’s medical documents.

An SSCC is not only for autistic children. It serves SPED students with any disability.

The fee help has two more conditions. First, your family’s income must be at or under the income line, the highest income that still gets fee help. The next section gives it.

Second, the family must have two working parents. The Enabling Guide says this rule may be waived in some cases. If one of you is not working, tell the SSCC and ask whether the waiver could apply to you.

What an SSCC costs after the subsidy

Each SSCC sets its own fee, but the government caps what a family pays. The cap is the most you pay in a month, and it falls as household income falls. The cap applies at an appointed SSCC, meaning one on SG Enable’s list.

Which column you read depends on the size of your household. The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) sets the rules for SCFA, and it counts income this way:

• Four family members or fewer: use gross household income. MSF counts both parents’ average gross monthly income together, or one parent’s in a single-parent home. Gross means before deductions. So it includes bonuses, and the share of your pay that goes into your own Central Provident Fund (CPF) savings.
• Five family members or more: use income per person. Add up everyone’s gross monthly income, then divide by the number of family members.

Here is one example. Two parents together earn S$6,000 a month before deductions, and the household has four members. They fall in the S$5,601 to S$6,500 band, so the most they pay is S$336 a month.

The last row is above the income line. A family there does not qualify for the subsidy, but the Enabling Guide still lists a cap of S$552 for it. The cap is the most you pay, so ask the SSCC for its actual fee.

In March 2024, MSF announced that SSCC fee caps would be lowered from July 2024, and that middle-income families would pay up to 40% less out of pocket.

The SSCC fee is one cost among several in the SPED years. Our map of financial help for special needs in Singapore puts the other schemes side by side, and our page on SPED school fees, school by school covers the school itself.

How an SSCC differs from an ordinary student care centre

An ordinary student care centre (SCC) is the version for children aged 7 to 14. The two share the same fee help, SCFA, but differ on age, who can go, how the fee help works and the income line.

The work rule, in numbers. In its SCFA rules, MSF counts a parent as working at 56 hours a month or more. You and your spouse must each meet it.

MSF gives this figure in the same rules that set the SSCC fee help. The Enabling Guide’s SSCC rules say only “two working parents”, with no hours. So ask the SSCC how the 56 hours applies to your family.

The January 2027 change is for ordinary centres. You may read that student care fee help widens from January 2027. That change raises the income line for ordinary SCCs, from S$4,500 to S$6,500. MSF lists no 2027 change to the SSCC line of S$9,200, as of 17 October 2026.

Where the list is kept, and how to apply

The list of appointed SSCCs is on the Enabling Guide’s SSCC page, with each one’s phone number and email. The fee caps above apply at every SSCC on it.

As of 17 October 2026, the eight appointed SSCCs are:

Two names on the list do not say “student care”. Rainbow Centre calls its two centres OOSH, short for Out-Of-School-Hours, and both are appointed SSCCs. Our pages on MINDS schools and Rainbow Centre schools cover the schools these SSCCs sit beside.

The Enabling Guide also links a download it calls the SSCC Service Matrix, with more on each SSCC. For the other schemes on SG Enable’s site, our walk-through of the Enabling Guide’s scheme pages shows where each one sits.

1. Gather your child’s medical documents. The SSCC needs to see that a doctor has certified your child’s disability.
2. Contact the nearest SSCC on the list yourself. Call or email it, ask whether it has a place, and ask what its own fee is.
3. Or ask for help. Your child’s school social worker, an Allied Educator at the school, or a medical social worker at the hospital can help you apply.
4. Ask the SSCC about the fee help. SCFA is means-tested, meaning your household income is checked. A government system called the Household Means Eligibility System (HOMES) does the check. MSF says to answer any call from HOMES on 6015 5700, or any SMS from gov.sg, promptly. If you do not, the application can be delayed or unsuccessful.

For anything the SSCC cannot answer, SG Enable takes questions at contactus@sgenable.sg or on 1800-8585-885.

When the SSCC is full, and the school holidays

Places. SG Enable and MSF give no figure for SSCC places or waiting times in their SSCC fee and entry rules. So contact an SSCC early, well before the term you need the place. Ask two questions: is there a place, and if not, how does the SSCC keep a waiting list?

If the nearest SSCC is full, ask the next nearest on the list. The school social worker can also help you look, as in step 3 above.

School holidays. The Enabling Guide describes an SSCC as care before and after school. It says nothing about the school holidays. Ask each SSCC whether it opens in the holidays, and for what hours.

The same name, but not on the list. Some centres that are not appointed also use the name special student care centre. One, Quinn Centre in Bishan and Yishun, describes itself as a social enterprise giving before, after school and holiday care to students in SPED schools. The Enabling Guide shows it in its general Service Directory, not on the list of appointed SSCCs.

If you look at a centre like this, ask it directly whether the SSCC fee caps apply.

What to do next

Open the Enabling Guide’s SSCC page, pick the nearest SSCC on its list, and contact it to ask for a place. Have your child’s medical documents ready when you do.

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