The past one and a half years of the pandemic have been characterized by a lot of time for schoolchildren that they have spent in distance and alternating lessons and hardly in clubs and with friends. After a long time full of constant social and psychological stress, it was nice news for children and young people at the secondary schools and high schools in the district of Ebersberg, which the youth welfare office manager Florian Robida announced at the most recent meeting of the youth welfare committee (JHA): at a request from the parliamentary group of the Greens the school social work at the above-mentioned secondary schools (SaS), which have existed for ten years, is being increased in terms of staff. However, the good news goes hand in hand with a bitter realization for the district: He has to bear the costs for this completely alone, although the Free State has actually been supporting SaS at least at all secondary schools since March – but only newly created positions.
School social work provides children and young people at schools with a social pedagogical specialist to support and encourage them in their personal development. According to youth welfare office manager Florian Robida, this area is an “important cornerstone” of child and youth welfare in the district.
When the district decided in 2011 to set up such educational support with a total of three full-time positions at the four Realschulen and four Gymnasien, there was only financial support for Realschulen “if, due to social problems, a significantly increased need for youth welfare can be proven”, as was the case at the time The version of the law reads – the district was unable to provide such. Gymnasiums were not included in the funding guidelines at all. The district therefore financed the positions independently – a voluntary service.
The feedback from the schools could hardly have been more positive: The SaS staff were working to full capacity and were very well accepted by the entire school family, as stated in the meeting documents. For the 2016/2017 school year, the district therefore decided to create another full-time position and thus finance a total of four positions. Since then, four full-time employees, each with half an hourly quota, have been working for all eight schools.
In the summer of 2021, the group of the District Greens requested another expansion of the offer. The pandemic-related circumstances had “negative psychosocial effects” for numerous schoolchildren and many experts were alarmed, according to the application letter. With the expansion of the SaS, an “increased low-threshold offer to cope with the consequences of the pandemic” could be created. In addition, the Greens demanded that the number of pupils at the respective school is reflected in the number of SaS employees.
The administration complied with its proposal to go from the current four full-time positions to a total of 5.5: The secondary schools in Ebersberg, Markt Schwaben and Poing remain at the current 0.5 positions, as they have fewer than 1000 students. At the Vaterstetten Realschule as well as at the grammar schools in Grafing, Kirchseeon and Markt Schwaben, more than 1000 pupils each will be increased to 0.75, and the grammar school Vaterstetten with more than 1500 pupils will get a full-time position.
Ottilie Eberl (Greens) emphasized how bitter the lack of funding from the Free State was. District Administrator Robert Niedergesäß (CSU) also saw it that way, who wrote to the Bavarian Ministry of Social Affairs. The regulation that only newly created positions are funded to the extent of at least 0.5 positions leaves him with the impression that “those districts that recognize a need for youth welfare early on and provide remedial action through the timely qualitative design of their services are punished be “, it says in the letter of the district administrator. “In my opinion, this is neither fair nor understandable!”
According to Robida, an answer from the ministry has already been received: One cannot deviate from the funding guidelines. Christian Bauer (CSU) concluded that this expensive voluntary service would be reflected in the district levy due to the lack of support from the ministry, which in turn could not be paid by the municipalities. “I can only agree with you”, Robida concluded the discussion. Subsequently, all committee members spoke out in favor of increasing the SaS staff in the proposed form, which corresponds to additional costs of around 130,000 euros.