Of everything that goes wrong in a move, this one stings the most: you sort out the house, the work and the registration, and then find that the application round for the barnehage closed six months ago. Childcare and school in Norway run on a yearly rhythm that has nothing to do with your moving date. Once you know the rhythm, you can plan around it.
Barnehage: one main round a year
The barnehage, Norwegian day care and preschool, has a single main admission round each year, the hovedopptak. You apply in winter and the places start in August. The exact closing date is set by each kommune, your Norwegian municipality, so the date on your kommune’s own website is the date that counts. Put it in the calendar as soon as you know where you will live, even if the address is not final.
Arrive outside that round and you fall into the supplerende opptak: you can apply all year, but you wait for a place to come free. Here the gap between city and countryside is wide. In Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim waiting lists are normal. In many rural kommuner there is room, sometimes within weeks. Phone the kommune and ask. They usually know the position barnehage by barnehage.
What your child is entitled to
The barnehageloven, the Kindergarten Act, gives children a statutory right to a place, the barnehagerett. The right exists once you have applied in time for the hovedopptak. When the place has to start depends on the month your child turns one:
- one by the end of August: a place from August, when the barnehage year begins
- one in September, October or November: a place by the end of the month your child has their birthday
- one in December or later: the right applies from the next barnehage year, so you wait for the next main round
Apply after the closing date and you fall outside the right and join the ordinary list. The act itself and the guidance from Utdanningsdirektoratet, the Directorate for Education and Training, are separate documents; the act is what decides.
The right also applies at kommune level, not at the level of one barnehage. You are entitled to a place, not to the place around the corner.
What it costs
Parents pay foreldrebetaling, with a national maximum monthly price per child. On top of that sit two schemes you have to apply for and will not be given automatically: an income-related reduction, and free core hours for certain age groups in households under an income threshold. This year’s maximum and this year’s thresholds change annually and are administered by the kommune. Check both with Udir and with your own kommune, and apply for the reduction as soon as you have Norwegian tax data. Siblings have their own discount as well.
You apply to the kommune, not the barnehage
This is where people trip up. You do not register your child at a barnehage. You register with the kommune, through one digital form in which you rank several barnehager in order of preference. That usually covers the private barnehager in the kommune too. The form needs a Norwegian fødselsnummer or D-number, so if you do not have one yet, contact the kommune and ask them to enter the application by hand.
Grunnskole
Grunnskole lasts ten years and starts in the calendar year your child turns six. It is compulsory, and you do not choose a school: you are assigned a nærskole, your local school, on the basis of your address. Move mid-year and you tell the kommune, which arranges the placement. Udir carries the rules on compulsory attendance, school start and transitions.
Children who do not yet speak Norwegian have a right to særskilt språkopplæring, extra language teaching for as long as they need it, with an assessment first and regular review afterwards. Larger kommuner also run an innføringstilbud, a separate introduction class for the first period. Ask the school for it explicitly. It is a right, not a favour, but it is not always offered unprompted.
After school there is SFO, called AKS in Oslo: after-school care at the school for the youngest years, with its own fees and its own application, again through the kommune.
What to bring from the Netherlands
Bring the vaccination record from the Rijksvaccinatieprogramma, on paper. The helsestasjon, the local child health clinic, transfers the data into the Norwegian register and fills in what is missing; Folkehelseinstituttet describes the programme and the registration. Bring the last school reports too, and any assessment or diagnosis reports. Translations are rarely needed. Norwegian schools read English.
What to close down in the Netherlands
Deregistering from your gemeente, your Dutch municipality, ends Dutch leerplicht, compulsory education, but tell the school directly as well so no absence report is left hanging. Kinderbijslag, Dutch child benefit, stops on emigration; report the move to the SVB yourself rather than waiting for someone to notice. If an older child is still on Dutch student finance, check with DUO what happens when the family moves abroad.
Deadlines and fees are set per kommune and per year, which is why this article links rather than quotes. Inside the platform the application round sits on your own timeline, with the question of which kommune it will be and a nudge well before the closing date.