Statutes on the levying of parental contributions adopted

At its meeting today, the City Council adopted the statutes on the levying of parental contributions by the City of Chemnitz. Among other things, this will increase the contributions for Chemnitz's municipal and independent childcare facilities as well as day care from 1 September 2021. Parental contributions in the city of Chemnitz were last increased in 2010.

Since 2013, the operating costs for a childcare place in the various types of childcare have risen. These higher costs have so far been offset with municipal funds. If these operating costs continue to rise without the parental contributions being increased, the legally prescribed minimum parental contribution to the operating costs of approx. 20 per cent will not be met (§ 15 Para. 2 SächsKitaG). An increase in the state subsidy has recently provided some relief here, but the city of Chemnitz still bears the majority of the costs. The funds provided for this are lacking in other areas such as daycare centre projects or infrastructure.

Dynamisation of parental contributions from 1 September 2022

A significant increase in parental contributions is to be prevented in future. For this reason, the new statutes will increase parental contributions annually on 1 September if the operating costs of a childcare place increase. This dynamisation of parental contributions ensures that the statutory limits are always adhered to.

Abolition of the non-contributory pre-school year on 1 September 2021

Furthermore, the new statutes for charging parental contributions will abolish the non-contributory pre-school year from 1 September 2021. There was no trend of more parents having their children looked after in the last year of nursery school due to the exemption from contributions. In addition, the non-contributory pre-school year has not led to any quantitative or qualitative improvements in educational work. Furthermore, no increase in the number of children moving to Chemnitz as a result of the free pre-school year has been observed.

Relief for low-income families can be achieved by submitting an application in accordance with § 90 SGB VIII.

Further regulations:

Financing of the familiarisation period with half a month's contribution

With the revision of the statutes, the financing of the settling-in period for children for the first month in a daycare centre or daycare facility was newly regulated. As the familiarisation period is staggered over the month and the children usually attend the facilities for the whole day at the end, a parental contribution of 4.5 hours is to be charged for the familiarisation month. Even if the length of the familiarisation period is based on the child's stage of development, the providers make qualified staff available from the outset.

Possibility of using up to ten hours of childcare for after-school children during the school holidays

If up to ten hours of childcare are used during the school holidays, an additional fee is charged for after-school children. The basis for this calculation during the school holidays is the parental contribution for six hours of after-school care. For each hour of childcare over the six-hour period, the provider of the facility charges an hourly rate in accordance with the appendix to the statutes.

Possibility of utilising a guest child place

Legal guardians in an emergency situation (illness, cure, accident or similar) can make use of a guest place for their child.
According to current case law, contributions for guest places are counted as parental contributions. The parental contributions for a guest place should therefore be included in the parental contribution statutes.

Consideration of the equal sharing model

Sharing the care of a child equally between parents who live apart is a living model that has been growing steadily in recent years. Previously, the counted child order was only granted to the custodian at whose place of residence the child was also registered with the main place of residence. As the concept of main residence no longer applies in the case of shared care, the number of children will be recognised for both households in future and the new living model will therefore be fully recognised.