Overview
- Local authorities have completed this year's placement round and sent letters confirming school assignments, with Berlin reporting placements for roughly 30,000 sixth-graders.
- In Kassel the regional school office allocated places for 3,603 pupils, of whom 2,302 received their first-choice school, 146 their second choice, and 160 were not placed at either top choice.
- Berlin's stricter Gymnasium rule requires adding six grades in mathematics, German and the first foreign language from two reporting periods and limits applications to pupils with a sum of 14 or lower, with the Probeunterricht the only remaining route without a formal recommendation and few passing it.
- Where demand exceeded supply authorities used Lenkungskonferenzen that apply home-district priority, consider curricular fit and travel, and then draw lots with parent-council oversight, a process that has left some children assigned to distant schools or separated from peer groups.
- The Berlin school-construction programme has added roughly 32 new buildings, 123 extensions and 61 sports halls to create about 53,000 places by 2025/26 and expects about 62,000 by 2026/27, a boost that eases overall pressure but does not eliminate local shortages or equity concerns for families.