Guaranteed place

No guaranteed place for infant care under 2.5 years of age

ECEC facilities are accessible to all parents in the German-speaking Community. However, there is no guarantee that every child will be allocated a care place, and even less so that a place will be available at the preferred location. 

Self-employed childminders and co-childminders are free to decide to whom they offer their care places. 

For subsidised service providers, the allocation of places is based on legally defined prioritisation criteria:

1. Applications from the Central Authority of the Community for adoption or from the department of the Ministry of the German-speaking Community responsible for youth welfare and youth protection, within the context of voluntary or judicial youth welfare, guardianship, or youth protection;
2. Applications for children who are enrolled as pupils in mainstream or special needs primary education in the German-speaking territory;
3. Applications from applicants who reside in the German-speaking territory;
4. Applications from applicants who are employed, statutory staff members, or self-employed in the German-speaking territory, or whose partner – sharing the same residence – carries out one of these activities in the German-speaking territory;
5. Applications for siblings of children already cared for by the same childcare service;
6. Applications from applicants residing in the municipality that fully or partially covers the potential deficit of the relevant childcare service;
7. Applications in chronological order.

Right to a kindergarten place from 2.5 years of age 

For children between two and a half and five years old, kindergartens are organised and subsidised by the German-speaking Community. For children residing in the German-speaking Community of Belgium, access is free of charge. These children are also entitled to a free place in kindergarten. There are no autonomous kindergartens.

As a result of an amendment to the federal law of 29 June 1983 on compulsory education, full-time attendance at kindergarten has been mandatory for all five-year-olds in Belgium since 1 September 2020.

Affordability

Infant care up to the age of three is subject to charges. With self-employed (co-)childminders, parents typically pay around €45 per full day of care. Childminders may receive financial support for caring for children from low-income families.

For subsidised service providers, a legally defined income-based fee scale is applied. For children from low-income families, infant care is free of charge (based on the so-called “median income” as a reference).  

Attendance at primary school from the age of two and a half is free for children residing in Belgium.