Overview
- From the 2026/27 school year, first graders gain a federal entitlement to full-day care that expands to all primary grades by 2029/30, with 40 hours per week guaranteed.
- Mecklenburg‑Vorpommern advanced a bill to implement the right, planning about 2,000 additional Hort places to reach roughly 53,000 and tapping €54.5 million in federal funds plus €11.7 million from the state.
- Gelsenkirchen filed suit against North Rhine‑Westphalia, arguing the state must set standards and fully finance operations, even as the city says it will still offer places to all first graders this year.
- A GEW survey reports acute gaps at NRW special‑needs schools, including around 1,100 vacant special‑education posts and 42% of bound Ganztag schools cutting at least one afternoon weekly due to staff shortages.
- Local schools prepare unevenly: in Barnstorf (Lower Saxony), existing four‑day open Ganztag will extend to a fifth day, with a new build and renovations planned as personnel needs and costs rise.