If your child is at least one year old, he or she has a legal right to early childhood education. Even younger children can already have a claim if parents cannot look after their child themselves, for example because both are working. Places for early childhood development are day care centers and day care facilities (Kitas).
Multilingual information
Child day care
In day care, your child will be looked after by a childminder. This care usually takes place in the home of the daycare provider or the child. A daycare worker looks after up to five children at a time. Care can also be provided in external child-friendly rooms. Two day carers look after up to ten children at a time. The work is done together, similar to a daycare center.
In Bremen, daycare providers are placed by PiB – Foster Children in Bremen. PiB ensures that all child minders are trained and accompanies their work. All have an official care permit.
Kitas
More than 320 public day care centers in Bremen offer day care for children under 3 years of age. These can be crèches, toddler groups, mixed-age groups, socio-pedagogical playgroups or facilities close to the company. In most groups, up to ten children are cared for at the same time; in mixed-age groups, up to ten kindergarten children between 3 and 6 years of age and five children under 3 years of age are cared for. The daycare centers in Bremen are either run by the municipal enterprise KiTa Bremen or by church communities, welfare associations, parents’ associations and other independent providers. All daycare centers, with the exception of a few private commercial facilities, are financially supported by the city of Bremen. In all facilities, pedagogical and pedagogical-nursing specialists are responsible for the early childhood development of the children.
Parental contribution
The amount of the parental contribution depends on your family income and the daily duration of care. The contribution is always based on the Bremen contribution table. The parental contribution is an annual fee that is paid in monthly installments. In socio-educational playgroups, care is free of charge.
Since 01.08.In 2019, all children with their usual place of residence in Bremen who have reached the age of three will be exempt from contributions until they start school. For many facilities, the fee is calculated by the Kita-Beitragsservice (daycare fee service) of the city of Bremen.
Kita contribution service
For the calculation of parental contributions for day care and the subsidization of parental contributions for day care in facilities financed by guidelines (z.B. Parents’ associations, private commercial sponsors), the parental contribution office of the Senator for Children and Education is responsible.
Parental Contribution Center
Local law on contributions for kindergartens and after-school care centers and contribution table
Childcare hours
Every child under the age of 3 is entitled to four hours of care per day. From the age of 1. August 2021, this entitlement increases to six hours a day. The individual entitlement can extend beyond this, for example if both parents are employed.
Child day care is a flexible form of day care that can be individually tailored to the time requirements of families. The maximum duration of care is 60 hours per week.
Daycare centers with several groups usually offer places with a care duration of up to 8 hours a day as well as early and late care. In single-group facilities, all places have the same duration of care. Daycare centers are predominantly open Mondays to Fridays according to the longest attendance times of children. In socio-pedagogical playgroups, children are supported two to three days a week for 3 to 4 hours each.
Except for a total closure period of four weeks per year, children can always attend their daycare center, even during school vacations. The daycare centers coordinate their closing times in the district so that at least one daycare center remains open for the care of children from neighboring daycare centers.
Registration
Initial registration
For a daycare place or a place with a daycare provider, please register your child online via the new KITAPORTAL.BREMEN.DE to. For registration you will need a child ID for your child. You will receive this automatically in November before the child’s 1st birthday. Birthday of your child by mail. In the KITAPORTAL.BREMEN.DE you can register your child for up to three desired facilities.
Continuation of day care
If your child has already been enrolled, he or she can generally keep the place at his or her daycare center in the following kindergarten years. However, if you require extended care time, you must re-register your child each year and provide up-to-date proof of your need each year.
Regular daily care time without proof is 6 hours for a child under 3 years old and 6 hours for a child 3 to 6 years old.
Children who turn 3 by the end of the year transfer to a kindergarten place if there are no places for 3 to 6 year olds offered in the current facility. To do this, you must register your child at another daycare center if he or she has not yet reached the age of 3. The child has reached the age of five.
Admission and arrival
Admission decision and selection criteria
Regardless of the admission date, the following applies: If there are more applications than available places, the daycare center management must decide which children will receive an acceptance. The legal selection criteria will be applied.
Preferential admission is granted if the Office for Social Services confirms that the child’s care is part of the assistance planning within the framework of educational assistance and is therefore necessary. Further admission criteria are the proximity of the place of residence or. Proximity to the workplace, siblings who are already being cared for in the respective facility, as well as the professional situation of the parent or guardian. If children live with only one parent or guardian, or if children are placed in daycare until they are 30 years old, you will have to wait. If your child is five years old by September of the Kita year for which you are registering, this will also be taken into account. This will also be taken into account if admission is requested due to the special concept of the facility.
Confirmation of place and parental confirmation
As soon as your child has been offered a place, you will receive a notification in the Kita portal mailbox. A copy of the message will be sent to your e-mail address, which you have stored in the Kita portal.
If you have submitted your application in writing, you may receive a letter of acceptance. a written confirmation from the Kita.
You then have 14 days to confirm that you accept the place.
If you do not report in time, another child will automatically get the place.
Arrival and settling in
A child who comes to the 1. A child who is admitted to a daycare center on August 1 of a year has his/her first day at the daycare center after the end of the summer vacation.
Every child needs a different period of time to get used to the day care. Accompanied by parents, the child gets to know the new environment, the new rooms, children and adults. Depending on the age of the child and how well he or she is adjusting to the new situation, the settling-in period can last up to 6 weeks. During this period of acclimatization, parents of children under the age of 3 in particular must assume that they will not yet be able to leave their child alone.
Help with finding a place
Regional placement
Each institution and day care center has a limited number of places. It is possible that your child cannot be admitted where you have registered him or her.
It is important that you already decide when registering your child in KITAPORTAL.BREMEN.DE whether your child should remain on the waiting list of the daycare center or whether it should be included in the central online placement portal of the city of Bremen.
If you can only imagine admitting your child to the place where he or she is registered, you will have to wait until a place becomes available at the Kita. Until then your registration will be kept on a waiting list of the daycare center.
If your child does not get a place in the care facility of your choice, your registration can be added to the central online placement portal of the city of Bremen if desired. If facilities still have vacancies, the management can find suitable children here that you could accept into your facility. When selecting the children, the management must observe the criteria of the Bremen Reception Center Act.
Contact
City Bremen
The Senator for Children and Education
Use our daycare hotline if you have questions or would like to make an appointment for a personal consultation:
Phone 0421 361-92000
Hotline hours: Mon. and Do. from 9:00 to 11:00 and Tues. and Mi. from 13:30 to 15:30
Counseling center with citywide placement of daycare providers