New “Kita Quality Act”: For more health and language support

Daycare centers are a matter for the federal states – but the federal government will contribute billions more, in the future through the “Daycare Quality Act” that the cabinet has initiated. However, the federal government has a say in what the grants are spent on.

If the federal states want money from the federal government for their daycare centers in the future, they have to adhere to certain guidelines. Federal funds are only available if the federal states invest in measures that promote children’s health and physical activity, for example. According to Federal Minister for Family Affairs Lisa Paus (Greens), these include in particular the areas of the skilled worker-child key, the recruitment of skilled workers and the topic of language training.

Focus on language promotion

Language education was a point of contention with municipalities and states. The federal government recently put a lot of money into the so-called language daycare centers, in the “Good Daycare Law”. This program will expire at the end of the year. It is therefore not yet off the table that the federal government also supports children who speak bad or little German. On the contrary, says Federal Family Minister Paus. There is still money for that.

But the Federal Minister wants to make the states more responsible. After all, education is also a matter for the federal states: “Continuing to finance the language day-care centers is possible with this law. And there are good reasons not to relax now, but to strengthen it. This law makes it possible for language day-care centers to continue to exist in Germany,” he said break

No general freedom of contribution

The Family Ministry will – as before – conclude contracts with the individual federal states. These should contain how the federal states intend to use the money from the federal government.

At the turn of the year, there is no longer one option: to use federal funds to make the day-care centers non-contributory. In some countries, for a long time now, parents only have to pay for lunch, in Berlin for example. In Hamburg, five hours a day are free of charge, in Hesse daycare centers are free for children over the age of three, and in Bavaria the Free State subsidizes parents with money.

Tiered parental contributions

The federal government now wants to have a greater say in parental contributions. Staggering becomes mandatory: the day-care center has to be cheaper for siblings. “It is the case that in the future it will have to be graded according to income and the number of children. Families without income remain free of contributions, and the new feature is that families with low incomes are exempt from contributions.”

This applies, for example, to families who receive housing benefit or child allowance. The law is scheduled to come into force on January 1st. However, the approval of the Bundestag and the federal states is still missing. It is quite possible that there will still be discussions in the Bundesrat.