Law on full day child care is coming – Work on the quality of all-day programs for elementary school children must begin

[10. 09. 2021] The family organisations united in the AGF welcome the fact that, with today’s decision by the Bundesrat, the entitlement to all-day care for children of primary school age has been passed before the end of this legislative period. Now the work on the quality of the offer, which has received too little attention in the law, must begin.

Following the agreement in the Mediation Committee and the decision in the Bundestag this week, the Bundesrat also passed the All-Day Care Promotion Act today. “This is an important step toward establishing this necessary block of high-quality childcare options that meet the needs of all families in Germany. This is urgently needed, since far too often with the transition from the early child care into the elementary school still the all-day care is threatened , so Sidonie Fernau, chairwomen of the AGF.

The family organizations are relieved that just in time in this legislative period an agreement was found in which the Federal Government and the states came to an agreement on the financing in particular of the running costs of all-day care.

“In order to fulfill the goal of the law, which is to provide for more educational equity in primary school age through all-day care and support, it now needs clear specifications for the quality of the offer,” says AGF Managing Director Sven Iversen. “The passing of the All-Day Support law must therefore be the start of a process that focuses on the quality of all-day offerings, on the training as well as the recruitment of educational specialists for this area.”

In this legislative period, the AGF had campaigned for the introduction of the law on full day child care and presented requirements for the quality of all-day care for children of primary school age.

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