Kita in Germany – When To Start Looking for Daycare? [2024]

Kita (kindertagesstätte) is a German preschool for children between three and six years afterwhich they are moved to full-time primary school. Each Kita in Germany have qualified teachers who are responsible to teach different activities like doing gymnastics, painting, handcrafting, poems and singing. It is always good to cloth up your children with waterproof clothes so they can enjoy all indoor and outdoor activities to the fullest.

Benefits of Kita

90% of the parents send their children to Kita due to several reasons. - Socializing: kid learn to play with other kids that develop a feeling of interaction and taste of social life. - Personality Development: child learn about his/her personality and learn about responsibilities that develops self-confidence. 
- Learning: child subconsciously learn new things from other children. 
- Targeted Learning: child develop their speaking skill and teachers focuses on the their behavior learning. 

Eingewöhnungsphase

If your child spend most of the time with you, it is hard for him/her to get separated so Eingewöhnungsphase (settling-in-period) of 4-8 weeks is to help your child to adapt to the new surrounding.

How Does Eingewöhnungsphase Work?

At start, you stay with your kid in Kita for whole time. After few days, you will stay till the time your kid starts playing. After this stage, you will leave your child in the room and you will stay in the other room so you can be called in case of an emergency. This period is difficult to manage by working parents. 

Activities and Duration of Child’s Stay at Kita

Kita timings are from 7 in the morning till 5 or 6 in the evening. Initial period (eingewöhnung) allows children to get easy into spending time at daycare. If child is spending full time at Kita, parents should check if food is offered otherwise they will manage it themselves. Children at kinderkrippe take part in educational plays but at Kita, they move to the advanced games to learn alphabets, numbers, and values. Staff supervise children all the time and track their progress. If both parents are working full-time, their children can get more free hours at Kita.

Selection of Kita

Due to high demand, many kitas in Germany have waiting lists due to which being listed at 50th place is common. There is space when children move towards primary school. Bilingual services are easily available in larger cities as compared to the small cities or rural areas.

You can find the nearby Kitas at Youth Welfare Office or visit Kita.de to search for a local kita. Get recommendations from your neighbors, friends, and colleagues and choose Kita, after considering following factors:

• Location: is it easy for you to drop your kid every morning before going to work?
• Child-to-Teacher ratio: if the number of children per teacher is less then the teacher can focus more on the needs of each child.
• Language: is your chosen kita offers multiple language or atleast German or English?
• Activities: what type of indoor and outdoor activities are available in your chosen Kita?
• Eingewöhnungsphase: duration of settling in period so you can plan your schedule accordingly. 
• Opening Hours: being working parents, choose kita that offer full day services.
• Food: is food provided at kita or do parents need to arrange?
• Behaviour of The Staff: If the number of international kids are less, check reviews of international parents.
• Schedule: what is the daily schedule in terms of learning? 

Right Time to Find Kita

Kitas are always full so you need find the place for your child well in advance and name down your child for multiple Kitas as soon as possible which will enhance chances of selection at a kita soon. Once it is confirmed, you can visit it to register the details and sign the contract. You need to submit ID, proof of address, and child’s birth certificate for verification.

Enrollment at Kita

For public Kita, you need to go to the Jugendamt who will allocate your child to the public kita themseleves or a kita you selected. If they assign a Kita themselves, it is not more than 5km or 30 minutes away from your home via Public transport.

For a private Kita, you need to go and enroll your child directly.

Kita Costs in Germany

Parents can apply for a Kita voucher (Kita Gutschein). Parents gets the money off with this voucher which depends on earnings. Parents with low incomes gets more savings. Fill out a form to apply for this voucher after getting information from the Youth Welfare Office.

Provide ID, proof of address, child’s birth certificate, and proof of consent from both parents. You might be asked to pay extra costs for food or trips. Kita voucher is available in some states only. Kita is subsidised;

• In Berlin and Hamburg
• For all children above 2 years in Rhineland-Palatinate
• For all children over 3 years in Hesse and Lower Saxony
• For sibling already attending in North Rhein Westphalia or after first year of attendance.
• For all children for a year before their mandatory schooling starts in Brandenburg and Thuringia

Final Thoughts

It is recommended to all international parents to send their child into a Kita in Germany. Getting a place at kita is hard but it is important to enable your child to master the language at a very early age or by the time you child goes to the mandatory school. Your child would already have social skills and knowledge that will be beneficialto adjust in a mandatory school quickly.