Will Brussels’ €750,000 Connect funding make Dutch-language schools easier for vulnerable families?
Brussels is again setting aside €750,000 for Connect, a Flemish Community Commission project that helps vulnerable families navigate Dutch-language education in the Brussels-Capital Region. The direct target is not the expatriate bubble, however.
In 30 seconds
- VRT NWS reported that Brussels is again freeing €750,000 for vulnerable children in Dutch-language education.
- Onderwijscentrum Brussel says Connect will be extended for the 2026-2027 school year.
- The VGC is the Dutch-speaking public authority in the Brussels-Capital Region.
- OCB says one in four children in Brussels grows up in poverty.
The story concerns Connect, a VGC-backed initiative in Dutch-language schools in Brussels. VRT NWS reported that Brussels is again freeing €750,000 for vulnerable children in Dutch-language education. The Onderwijscentrum Brussel, the VGC education support centre, says the project is being extended for the 2026-2027 school year and is intended to support parents through their children’s schools, with particular attention to families facing more difficulties. The named institutional stakeholders are the Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie, VGC education member Dirk De Smedt, VGC College chair Elke Van den Brandt, the Onderwijscentrum Brussel, school teams, parents, pupils, and organisations working on school costs and poverty such as vzw Krijt.
Background
Dutch-language education in Brussels has long had a dual role: it is part of the Flemish Community’s constitutional responsibility, but it also functions as a local public service in a city where many pupils do not come from Dutch-speaking homes. That makes Brussels different from most of Flanders. Language support, poverty reduction, parent partnership and school capacity are not side issues; they are structural conditions for whether the network works. The VGC’s 2026-2029 agreement explicitly links learning in Brussels with tackling the impact of poverty, school dropout and pressure on school teams.
What to do
Parents in Brussels Dutch-language schools should ask their school whether Connect support is available, who the contact person is, and whether help exists for school invoices, forms, language questions, after-school activities or welfare referrals. School teams should clarify internally how Connect links with care coordinators, CLB contacts and poverty-sensitive cost policies.
The Belgian angle
The impact is concentrated in the Brussels-Capital Region, especially in Dutch-language schools serving multilingual and lower-income neighbourhoods. It may be most visible in parent-school contact, referral to support services, school-cost policies and prevention of avoidable disengagement.
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