School and barnehage in Norway: free school, childcare for at most 1,200 kroner

Yes, your children can go to school in Norway straight away, and it costs nothing. The Education Act gives every child expected to stay in Norway longer than three months the right to the public grunnskole, from the year it turns six up to and including the tenth year, and a child with another mother tongue gets extra Norwegian lessons until it can follow the ordinary classes. The barnehage, the childcare for the little ones, has cost at most NOK 1,200 a month since 1 August 2025. The trap is not in the school but in the money around it: the Norwegian child benefit does not come by itself when you move, and NAV counts on nine months of processing time for an application under the EU rules.

How does the Norwegian school work?

The grunnskole covers ten school years in one public school: from the year your child turns six up to and including the tenth year. The law gives your child the right to go to a school in its own neighbourhood; the municipality may set school catchment areas, with the distance from home as the starting point. Which school it will be therefore depends on your address, and that address gets into the Population Register through the same report that produces your fødselsnummer.

Children arriving with a mother tongue other than Norwegian or Sami have the right to særskild språkopplæring: extra Norwegian lessons, for as long as needed to follow the ordinary classes. That can be intensive Norwegian lessons and, where needed, mother-tongue teaching or bilingual subject teaching; ask about it when you register.

What does the barnehage cost?

Children under six go to the barnehage. The price is capped nationally, the same for municipal and private barnehager:

Element	What applies
Maximum price	NOK 1,200 a month, since 1 August 2025
Least central municipalities	NOK 700 a month
Finnmark and Nord-Troms (tiltakssone)	free
Second child	at least 30 per cent reduction
Third child and beyond	free
Low income	never more than 6 per cent of household income per child
Free core time	20 hours a week for 2- to 5-year-olds at a household income up to NOK 692,465 (from 1 August 2026)
Food	the barnehage may charge it separately, on top of the maximum price

A municipality may charge less than the maximum price, not more. Over the whole barnehage year 2025/2026 the maximum price comes, according to Udir, to NOK 13,200.

You only get the place if you apply for it, and the municipality sets the deadline. The law gives a child who turns one by the end of August at the latest the right to a place from August, but only etter søknad (on application) and in the municipality where you live; the application deadline is set by the municipality itself. Look up the deadline of your new municipality as soon as you have an address, not only when work starts.

What is SFO, and what does it cost?

The skolefritidsordning is the care before and after school hours. The municipality must offer it for school years 1 to 4, and for children with special needs up to and including year 7. Taking part is voluntary, and the municipality may charge parents for it. New since 1 August 2026: children in years 1 to 3 have a legal right to twelve hours of free SFO a week. What you take above that, you pay at the municipality's rate.

What about child benefit?

The Norwegian child benefit is called barnetrygd: NOK 2,012 per child per month for children aged 0 to 18, the amount since 1 February 2026. For a child born in Norway it goes automatically. For a family that moves it does not: NAV states explicitly that you must apply if the child was not born in Norway and if the application is assessed under the EU rules. The latter applies to you as a Dutch citizen. NAV gives an expected processing time of three months for an ordinary application and nine months for an EU application, because information from the other country is needed.

So apply as soon as you are registered in Norway, and count the first months without this amount. Waiting costs money: NAV normally pays barnetrygd back for at most three months before the date of your application.

What do you arrange in which order?

Three things hang together. The school and the barnehage want an address in the municipality, the municipality wants to see you in the Population Register, and the barnetrygd wants both. A Norwegian address is therefore the first step for all three, and the report to the Population Register the second. How the registrations fit into your move is in the step-by-step plan for Norway.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey, step 5.4: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Norway or go straight to step 5.4 in the open plan.