Your child: nursery, school, børne- og ungeydelse
In short
Three separate systems that are easy to mix up. [[dagtilbud|Dagtilbud]] — nursery — is the kommune, and you have to sign up yourself. School is the kommune too, but children are taken by age. [[boerneydelse|Børne- og ungeydelse]] is money from , and you do not apply for it.
The hard part here is not the paperwork but the waiting: a nursery place is almost never given straight away, and for newcomers the child benefit is not paid in full but in steps that grow with the years you have lived here.
put your child on the waiting list as soon as you have a CPR, even if you do not need the place yet
Does this apply to me?
Yes, if you have a child under 18 with you and you both have a and a residence permit. Until the permit is in place, benefit applications are not accepted.
Steps
Put your child on the waiting list — as early as you can
You apply through Digital Pladsanvisning on borger.dk: you pick your kommune there and it sends you on into the kommune’s own system. The same place shows your position in the queue, and the same place is where you later withdraw your child.
Queue rules are different in every kommune, but almost everywhere your place is counted from the date of the application, not from the age of the child. So you apply straight away and state the date you need separately.
in the application you state the date you actually need the place from
Know what the kommune owes you
This is called pasningsgaranti: the kommune has to offer a nursery place for a child from 26 weeks old until school. If you need the place exactly at 26 weeks, the kommune has another 4 weeks to find it.
The guarantee is about a place at all, not about the particular nursery near your home. The one nearby may well be full.
Apply for the discount — it is not automatic
What you pay for nursery depends on the income of the whole household. This is called økonomisk fripladstilskud, and you have to ask for it yourself: on borger.dk there is an application “Ansøg om friplads i dagtilbud”.
the thresholds shift if you are a single parent or have more than one child
You do not have to ask for the sibling discount
Søskendetilskud — the discount for brothers and sisters — is given by itself. You pay the full price for the most expensive place and half for the other children.
Other things you do have to report to the kommune yourself: if your household has changed, or you have started living apart or together. Otherwise they recalculate it later and ask for the money back.
School: from the year your child turns 6
The general rule is that a child starts børnehaveklasse in the calendar year they turn six. A year earlier or a year later is possible, but that is a separate decision by the kommune.
Children who do not speak Danish first go into a modtageklasse — a reception class — and get basisdansk, Danish as a second language, in small groups or one to one.
in Denmark education is compulsory, not school: a private school is allowed too
Børne- og ungeydelse: new arrivals have to apply for it
For people already in the system the money is paid automatically. But if you arrived as a refugee, you have to apply yourself — borger.dk has a separate section for it, and it requires a valid residence permit. Payment goes to your ; if the parents live together with shared custody, the amount is split in half.
But there is the optjeningsprincippet: the full amount goes to someone who has lived or worked in Denmark for 6 of the last 10 years. Newcomers get it in steps — and for the first six months nothing is paid at all.
What you will need
- MitID on your phone
- CPR numbers — yours and your child’s
- Birth certificate with a translation
- The residence permit decision
- Income documents — for the discount application
Danish words you will see
- Dagtilbud
- Nursery, kindergarten or a childminder — everything the kommune offers for children before school.
- Pladsanvisning
- The kommune department that allocates nursery places. You apply through the kommune website.
- Børne- og ungeydelse
- A child benefit paid once a quarter. It comes by itself; you usually do not have to apply.
- Udbetaling Danmark
- The state body that pays housing support, child benefit and pensions. It is not the kommune.
- NemKonto
- Your account, the one the state sends all payments to.
- CPR-nummer
- Your personal registration number. You need it for almost everything.
Common mistakes
- Waiting to join the queue until you need the place. Your place is usually counted from the date of the application — every month of waiting is a month lost.
- Not applying for økonomisk fripladstilskud. The income-based discount is not given by itself. Only the sibling discount is automatic.
- Not reporting a change in the household. They recalculate it backwards later and send you a bill.
- Expecting the full børneydelse from day one. The first 6 months — nothing, then 8,3 % and gradually up. This is not a fault in the system.
- Mixing up børne- og ungeydelse with børnetilskud. If you are a new arrival, you have to apply for both. Børne- og ungeydelse arrives automatically only for people already in the system.
Need to talk to a human?
Ask about the nursery queue and the discount at your kommune — in the pladsanvisning department. Ask about child benefits at Udbetaling Danmark: that is a separate authority, not the kommune.
Where to turn and what to say →Where this information comes from
- Checked against sources: 21.09.2026
- Sources: borger.dk — Dagpleje, vuggestue, børnehave, borger.dk — Økonomisk fripladstilskud, borger.dk — Børne- og ungeydelse, uvm.dk — Skolestart
This is an explanation in plain words, not legal advice. The final word always belongs to the authority. How we check
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