User:Maikel/Daycare in Germany

Germany
In Germany, pre-school education is the domain of the Kindertagesstätte (literally "children's day site", often shortened to Kita or KITA), which is usually divided into the Kinderkrippe (crèche) for toddlers (age up to 3 years), and the Kindergarten for children who are older than three years and before school. Children in their last Kindergarten year may be grouped into a Vorschule ("pre-school") and given special pedagogic attention; special pre-school institutions comparable to the US-American Kindergarden are uncommon.

Kitas are typically run by public (i. e. communal) and "free" carriers (such as the churches, other religious organisations, social organisations with a background in the trade unions and profit-orientated corporations), and subsidised by the states (Länder). In this case, the care is open to the general public -- e. g. a protestant or muslim child may claim a place in a Kita run by the catholic church.

Pre-school education, unlike school and university, is not in the exclusive domain of the states. The federal government regulates daycare through the Kinder- und Jugendhilfegesetz (KJHG), which stipulates a legal claim to daycare:
 * for children over the age of three and before school (i. e. Kindergarten; this law became effective in 1996);
 * for children under the age of three and before Kindergarten (i. e. Kinderkrippe; this law becomes effective August 1, 2013).

Alternative daycare can be provided through Tagespflegepersonen (usually Tagesmütter, "day mothers"), i. e. stay-at-home parents which provide commercial day care to other children. This form of daycare is also federally regulated through the KJHG.

Preschool education (Frühpädagogik) is increasingly seen as an integral part to education as a whole; several states such as Bavaria have released detailed educational plans for day care carriers who claim state subsidies. "Early pedagogics" has increasingly moved into the academic domain, with an increasing number of staff being trained at universities of applied science (Fachhochschulen) and regular universities. Non-academic personnel in day care facilities have usually attended specialised schools for several years. In the state of Bavaria for example, day care assistants (Kinderpfleger) will have attended school for two years, day care teachers (Erzieher) for three years with an additional two-year internship.