legislative changes were adopted to relax sovietera hygiene standards permitting early childhood education and care to be provided in a wider range of accommodations to stimulate provision the lithuanian central government authorised municipalities to use the funding received through the student basket funding methodology to support provision in private ecec facilities as well as public facilities as a consequence of these changes the number of private kindergartens has been steadily increasing and in of the country s municipalities had private kindergartens expand participation in rural areas by focusing on stimulating parent demand for services