The education and care of young children are organised in two distinct types of structures: pre-primary or nursery education , from the age of 2,5, and childcare facilities : education and care for young children who can be cared for in day care centres or by childminders as soon as the  maternity leave of their mother is over (which generally means after 4 months).

In the French-speaking part of Belgium there is a variety of childcare facilities adapted to the needs of children and their family. Globally, the coverage rate for 0 to 3 years-old is 43,8%, which is above the Barcelona target, taking into account the children attending nursery school from the age of 2,5. This coverage rate is 28,2% for children under the age of 2,5, even if there is still an imbalance between supply and demand.

The ECEC sector is strongly regulated. It's forbidden by law to take care of a child under 6 outside school hours without the ONE's authorisation. However, no authorisation is required if the childminder is a family member or if the child is taken care of at his parents' home. Specific training is compulsory for all the staff of the childcare facilities, and also for self-employed childminders.

The ONE (Office de la Naissance et de l'Enfance- Office of Birth and Childhood) plays an important role in the organisation and regulation of the ECEC sector. The ONE is an independent public organism, and its two main missions are :

• To support the child's development within his family and his social environment. The role of the ONE is to advise and support pregnant women, parents and families through medical and social action, in order to ensure the global wellbeing of children. Most of the services offered by the ONE are free.
• To organise (that means to control and sometimes to finance) day care centres for children outside family background. The role of the ONE is to ensure that these structures operate correctly and provide quality care for children.

The ONE also has cross-cutting missions, such as parenting support for example.

There are two main categories of child care facilities for children under the age of three : day care centres, and childminders.

A quality framework (17 december 2003) considers both the quality of life of the children in the centres and the service provided to parents and to society. It defines general quality objectives which are directly inspired by the Children Rights Convention and by the European Commission's Recommendations on ECEC. The legislator considers that ECEC needs exceed the sole necessity of supervision of the child when his parents are not available , and that those needs are particularly related to his physical, psychological, cognitive, affective and social development.

More recently, two innovative sectors are being developed:

• flexible day care centres ("haltes-accueil"), which address specific, occasional, urgent needs on reduced hours;
• after school activities, support to homework, holiday activities and camps.

Pre-primary education organised or grant-aided by the French Community is commonly known as nursery education. Nursery education is defined  as education given to children whose age on 30 September is at least two years and six months and who are not yet in primary education . While constituting a level of education in its own right, nursery education is grouped with the three cycles of primary education under the umbrella term of pre-secondary education. Pre-primary education pursues all the general goals laid down in the Decree on the Missions of School (24 July 1997). Its specific aims are:

• to develop children's awareness of their individual potential and encourage self-expression through creative activities;
• to develop socialisation;
• to develop the learning of cognitive, social, affective and psychomotor skills;
• to identify children's difficulties and handicaps and address these through remediation.