Enlarge image
Children eat at school: the legal entitlement to all-day care will apply from 2026 (symbol image)
Photo:
IMAGO/Fotoagentur WESTEND61 / IMAGO/Westend61
Time is running out: from August 1, 2026, primary school children will have a legal right to all-day care.
Until then, the federal states must at least provide offers for all first graders until the afternoon.
The federal government made money available for the accelerated expansion of the places – but not all federal states had drawn down the full amount by the end of the period.
The so-called “all-day care acceleration program” with financial aid from the federal government expired on December 31, 2022.
Brandenburg has around 22.6 million euros available from this, but the state only called off just under 15 million euros.
This is based on data from the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs (BMBF) for the years 2021 and 2022, which is available to the dpa news agency.
According to this, Brandenburg is behind most other federal states with a retrieval rate of around 66 percent.
Rhineland-Palatinate has not used around a fifth of the money available from the federal government.
Of around 36.2 million euros, 28.7 million were exhausted.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is in the middle with 89.2 percent.
So far, around 13.9 million euros of the almost 14.9 million euros that the state receives have flowed to the Baltic Sea coast.
Hamburg, on the other hand, has drawn on all the funds available for the Hanseatic city: a good 19.18 million euros.
Saarland also gets 100 percent.
Bremen, Saxony-Anhalt and Baden-Württemberg rank just below.
Baden-Württemberg, for example, requested around 96.4 million euros out of around 97.6 million that had been made available for the south-west.
Money is distributed according to the Königstein key
A total of 750 million euros was available for the federal states via the investment program.
The distribution is based on the Königstein key and depends on the tax revenue and the population of the individual countries.
According to the BMBF, the "accelerators" are intended, among other things, to purchase furniture, play and sports equipment.
As of January 23, 2023, almost 536 million euros of the 750 million euros had been called up by the federal states, as the ministry informed SPIEGEL.
This corresponds to a call rate of 71.44 percent.
The federal government had already extended the deadline for the investment program for the accelerated expansion of all-day care by one year.
This was justified, among other things, by the fact that construction projects had been delayed due to the flood disaster in summer 2021, the corona pandemic and the tense market situation in the construction sector.
more on the subject
Criticism of the Königstein key: Why Bavaria skims money for education – and Bremen depends on Silke Fokken
Federal money for schools: the left calls for fairer education funding by Armin Himmelrath
Shortage of skilled workers in education: "The whole day shouldn't be childcare" by Silke Fokken
Psychologist on gifted children: »The IQ increases when a person is well supported« An interview by Johannes Teschner
According to the ministry, the funds that have not yet been called up by the federal states are not lost.
They could also benefit the federal states via another pot: In addition to the “acceleration program”, the federal government is providing a further 2.75 billion euros as “basic funds” for the all-day expansion, according to the ministry.
This can be used to finance new buildings, conversions and refurbishments, among other things.
"Accelerating resources" that are not used are therefore added to the "basic resources".
They would in turn be redistributed to the federal states according to the Königstein key.
The countries were aware that the "accelerators" would be followed by a follow-up program.
According to its own statements, the federal government is also involved here - as with the acceleration program - with a maximum funding rate of 70 percent, the states including the municipalities with at least 30 percent.
The legal entitlement to all-day care will be introduced in stages.
According to the law, the scope of care is eight hours on all five working days.
The teaching time is counted.
According to the BMBF, the legal entitlement also applies during the holidays, with a maximum of four weeks.
The federal government wants to contribute to the running costs.
According to the ministry, corresponding funding should increase annually from 2026 up to 1.3 billion euros per year from 2030.
fok/dpa
