Izegem (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – The city of Izegem has officially opened a new after‑school care facility, Bosmolientje, in the Bosmolens neighbourhood, adding 24 extra places for school‑age children as local authorities move to relieve pressure on working families amid a wider Flemish childcare crunch.
What exactly is Bosmolientje and where is it located?
Bosmolientje is an inauguration of a Buitenschoolse Opvang (BSO) site in the city of Izegem, located in West Flanders, Belgium. This is located in the district of Bosmolens, a neighborhood which has been expanding for several years now. The particular project is tailored for children who attend school, providing them with support during the period before and after school, holidays, and pedagogically free days. There is currently no specific street address or other information pertaining to the organization running the facility, although there are sources which provide information about this project as well. In the local press, this project is being described as
“24 extra places for children at the Bosmolens”
for the neighborhood which needs extra space.
Why does Izegem need 24 extra BSO places now?
The new scheme for Izegem comes at a time when there is already a structural shortage of childcare places in Flanders due to waiting lists, shortage of personnel, and a decreasing number of childminders. The number of officially approved childcare places in Flanders decreased by 356 in 2025 to 92,819, the lowest since a decade ago, mostly because of the decrease in family-based childminders.
The region only added eight childcare places in the first nine months of 2025 although political pledges to add thousands of new places had been made by 2029. Local authorities in Izegem see this BSO project as a concrete measure at the neighbourhood level to address this structural issue. Through providing twenty-four new BSO places all at once, the city hopes to decrease the waiting lists for families living around Bosmolens, decrease commuting needs of parents to other locations and increase attractiveness of the location for young couples.
How will Bosmolientje operate and who can use it?
In line with the standard practice of the Flemish BSO system, Bosmolientje opens on school days, both before and after school hours as well as during school holidays and pedagogical free days. The BSO facility will be aimed at children who attend primary schools located in Izegem and its surroundings. As per usual practice, priority will be given to people living in the area and who make use of municipal childcare facilities.
As far as tariffs at municipal or municipally subsidized BSO institutions are concerned, these tend to depend on family income and are calculated on the basis of the “inkomenstarief” of the Flemish government which is managed by Kind en Gezin. In other words, parents will pay daily rates which are dependent on the income level of their family, with lower income families paying less and higher income families paying more until a certain capped amount.
What similar developments have happened elsewhere in Flanders?
However, Izegem is not the only one trying to change the way after-school care is organized. So far in Halle, on 1 September 2026, the municipality took over the organization of BSO in practically all the primary schools of the area, which helped make the services more uniform in terms of registration and tariffs. In Kapelle-op-den-Bos, the move to organize centrally the after-school care after 16:30 hours became a political issue, with the opposition calling to suspend the measure and the majority still going forward with their plans.
All of these examples reflect a larger trend whereby more and more municipalities take direct control of the organization of BSO through municipal facilities or coordination among schools and private companies. The aim is always the same – to stabilize the supply, facilitate access for parents, and provide after-school care even in case the supply of childminders becomes insufficient. Bosmolientje perfectly corresponds to this trend as municipal BSO extension.
