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Cloakroom in a day-care center (symbolic image): "Capacity utilization" is not an argument
Photo: Friso Gentsch / dpa
A lack of daycare capacity due to a lack of staff is no reason to refuse parents a place in a daycare center.
In order to fulfill the legal entitlement to a daycare place, municipalities could also grant a temporary special permit for overcrowding in individual cases, the Administrative Court (VGH) Baden-Württemberg in Mannheim ruled in a decision announced on Tuesday (case
no.: 12 S 2224/22
).
In the case at hand, working parents had unsuccessfully applied to the city of Böblingen for a daycare place for their daughter, who will be four years old in December 2022.
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The parents then sought legal help and applied on behalf of their daughter for the responsible Böblingen district to allocate them a place in a daycare center for five hours a day.
The day care center must be accessible within 30 minutes by public transport.
The law has no capacity reservation
The district refused and referred to the "capacity utilization";
he could not meet the day-care center requirement due to a lack of skilled workers.
The VGH decided that the right to a place in a day care center had to be fulfilled "via a temporary exemption for overcrowding in individual cases".
The Mannheim judges recognized the difficulties in providing daycare places.
However, there is also a legal right in the event of a shortage of skilled workers or other difficulties.
The law does not provide for any reservation of capacity, so that the district has to make a care offer.
sun/jur
