We have just arrived in Belgium and my child does not speak the school language. How does my child start school, and is there support?

What is not allowed, what is required?

• Under the Constitution, everyone has the right to education (art. 24 §3). For a child of foreign nationality, compulsory education starts 60 days after the family registers with the municipality (law of 29.6.1983, art. 1 §7).
• Flanders, primary school: since 1 September 2026, schools must organise a language class (taalheldklas) for every newly arrived allophone child from the 2nd year upwards, regardless of residence status; the class council can exempt a child (Primary Education Decree art. 139vicies semel). The class is in principle full-time and lasts in principle one school year or less; the class council can extend it up to 2 school years at most.
• Flanders, secondary school: OKAN is a 1-year reception year for newcomers (Codex SO art. 135). It is for children who, on 31 December after the start of the school year, are at least 12 and not yet 18, have been in Belgium for at most 1 year without interruption, do not speak Dutch at home, do not know enough Dutch to follow lessons and have been enrolled in a Dutch-language school for at most 9 months (art. 3). Children living in an open reception centre for asylum seekers can also take part.
• In Flanders, the school tests children's Dutch at the start of compulsory education. For newly arrived allophone children this screening is not compulsory; they always receive a Dutch language integration track, in principle with an intensive language immersion (taalbad) or an equivalent alternative (Primary Education Decree art. 11quater).
• French-language schools: DASPA is a reception class (decree of 7.2.2019, art. 2). It is for children aged 2½ to 18 who arrived in Belgium less than 1 year ago and are asylum seekers, refugees, stateless or nationals of a country receiving development aid. Some other children who do not know enough French can also take part as 'assimilé': children who turn 5 by 31 December at the latest, are foreign nationals, stateless, or Belgians who lived more than 12 months in a non-French-speaking region abroad, and have been in a French-language school for less than one full school year.
• DASPA lasts between 1 week and 1 year. It can be extended by up to 6 months, and by another 6 months for children who cannot read and write. The integration council (Conseil d'intégration) decides on the extension with the parents' agreement (art. 13). If the period ends in the 3rd term, the child may stay until the end of the school year.
• For children in the 3rd nursery year and the 1st and 2nd year of primary who do not know enough French, the school gives FLA support (français langue d'apprentissage) with extra teaching periods (art. 2 and 4).
• Take school reports and diplomas from abroad to the school. Usually the school decides which year the child starts in. For secondary school, an equivalence (équivalence) of the foreign diploma may also be needed in French-language education; ask the school.

Penalty and indirect consequences

Why does this rule exist?

A child who does not know the language quickly falls behind in an ordinary class. Reception classes let the child first learn the school language intensively and then move to an ordinary class.