Denmark’s free public schools guarantee free instruction, but a new study finds that school-related expenses are putting significant pressure on poorer families and can limit some children’s participation in class life. Among parents living below the poverty threshold used in the study, 54% said expenses connected with their child’s schooling challenged the family’s finances.
The findings come from new research published by Egmont on 30 September. Epinion surveyed 1,739 parents of children attending Denmark’s municipal primary and lower-secondary school system (folkeskolen), including 505 parents classified as living in poverty.
The poverty threshold was defined as disposable income below 50% of the median for the relevant family type. The poorer group was deliberately overrepresented to allow it to be analysed separately, while results for the overall parent population were weighted by gender, region and economic status.
The study measures families’ reported experiences rather than the mandatory cost of attending school. The full Egmont report says it cannot establish how much families spend in kroner.
School-related costs can affect participation
The expenses covered by the survey include class funds, school trips, teaching materials, school photographs and activities organised around the class community. The affordability question did not include ordinary everyday items such as clothing, sportswear, school bags or bicycles.
Among the 54% of parents in poverty who said school-related costs challenged their finances, 22% said their child sometimes could not take part in trips or other activities during school hours. Another 30% said their child sometimes missed class activities after school, while 27% believed the expenses sometimes made their child feel excluded from the class community.
The survey also found social pressure around supposedly voluntary contributions. Forty-four per cent of parents in poverty said they felt pressure from the wider parent group to contribute, while only around one in three said class funds were clearly presented as voluntary.
Heidi Sørensen, director of Egmont’s foundation secretariat, said the qualitative interviews accompanying the survey showed how children themselves react to these pressures.
“Children tell us about saying no to activities, feeling outside the community and trying not to burden their family’s finances,” Sørensen said.
Free teaching does not mean every school-related expense is covered
Free public education is protected by Section 76 of the Danish Constitution, which gives children of compulsory school age the right to free instruction in the folkeskole.
That does not mean every expense connected with school life is necessarily covered by the public system. However, there are limits to what families can be required to pay.
According to guidance from Denmark’s Ministry of Children and Education, pupils cannot be excluded from excursions, school camps or school trips because their parents have not contributed financially. Parents can voluntarily contribute through arrangements such as class funds, but those contributions must remain voluntary.
The distinction helps explain why the new findings do not amount to evidence that Danish schools systematically charge families for compulsory teaching. The survey covers a broader range of expenses around school and class life, including activities organised by parents and costs that families may technically be able to refuse but can still experience as socially difficult to avoid.
The government has promised money to reduce the burden
The issue is already on the national political agenda. In its political programme published in June 2026, Denmark’s four-party government pledged to address situations in which particularly vulnerable families face demands for parental payments in public schools.
The programme allocates DKK 100 million (€13.4 million) a year for the initiative. It forms part of a wider package focused on children and education, although the programme itself does not set out all the practical details of how the money will reduce school-related costs.
Egmont, Save the Children Denmark (Red Barnet), School and Parents (Skole og Forældre), Danish School Students (Danske Skoleelever), Mødrehjælpen and Odense Municipality are calling for clearer communication about voluntary payments, greater awareness of financial barriers and activities that allow children to participate regardless of their parents’ income.
The findings suggest that the central issue is therefore not whether teaching in Denmark’s public schools is formally free. It is whether the wider social life surrounding school can be accessed on equal terms when participation still comes with costs.
