New legal right to all-day care: education for all children!

New legal right to all-day care: education for all children!

From the 2026 school year, a legal right to full-day care in primary schools will come into force in Germany. This new regulation offers all students from the first grade onwards the opportunity to take advantage of full-day support, which includes 40 hours per week. During this important reform, schools are faced with the challenge of developing new concepts that go far beyond pure school education. Expectations are high because the innovation is seen as an opportunity to promote equal access to education and personal growth for all children. MyNewsdesk reports that the upcoming federal conference of the Pestalozzi-Fröbel Association (pfv) on September 26th and 27th in Bamberg will focus on the topic of equal opportunities through early childhood education.

The expert and university professor Prof. Anke König emphasizes that early childhood education has a decisive influence on children's educational biographies. In particular, the quality of crèches and daycare centers plays an important role. In fact, early learning programs often fail to reach the children who need them most. In Germany, access to education depends heavily on social background. The new legal right is seen as a turning point in education policy and is intended to help eliminate existing inequalities. Education is generally viewed as a central factor for social cohesion.

Challenges and opportunities of implementation

The introduction of legal entitlement brings with it both opportunities and challenges at the local and educational policy levels. The Federal Ministry for Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth states that the municipalities are responsible for the organizational implementation, whereby the planned offers depend heavily on the needs of the families. The educational policies of the states also play a crucial role, as each school has to develop an individual all-day concept. However, this must not lead to schools becoming closed institutions.

The envisaged reform also requires consideration of existing legal rights, such as those relating to daycare places. Experience shows that equal opportunities have not yet been achieved and there are inequalities in access to offers, often depending on the parents' employment. The situation is particularly worrying in daycare centers attended by children from disadvantaged families, as they often struggle with lower quality. The legal entitlement is therefore linked to the day-care center law and, in addition to education, also provides for upbringing and care.

Financial support and future outlook

The federal government is supporting the expansion of all-day care places with 3.5 billion euros for the municipal educational infrastructure. According to the ministry, the entitlement is planned to be updated annually until the 2029/30 school year, with the regulations being anchored in the Eighth Social Code (SGB VIII). Parents have the freedom to decide whether they want to use the concept offered and to what extent. The new regulations also provide for holiday care, with a maximum closure period of four weeks, although this can be regulated by the federal states. The German UNESCO Commission points out that access to high-quality education is an essential goal and that disadvantaged children in particular can benefit from early childhood support.

The innovations in all-day care therefore not only represent a reform, but also a call to the federal, state and local governments to systematically improve the quality of early childhood education and to integrate all children into equal educational opportunities. The legal right has the potential to promote an inclusive educational landscape in which diversity is viewed as an opportunity.