Overview
- The Schulbehörde sent a formal reorganization letter that will take effect in the coming school year and sets new rules for which pupils receive school accompaniment.
- Under the plan pedagogical and social‑pedagogical professionals will be approved only in exceptional cases while participants in the voluntary Freiwilliges Soziales Jahr (FSJ) will handle routine accompaniment.
- Children classified with learning, language, or emotional and social development needs will generally not receive accompaniment in their first school year and will instead be offered individualized school or extracurricular measures.
- Unions and the Linksfraktion condemned the changes as cuts to inclusion and families have launched petitions, while the Schulbehörde says the move aims to target limited resources more transparently and effectively.
- Officials point to a long rise in demand—approved accompaniment cases rose from about 460 in 2011/12 to roughly 4,011 now and costs climbed from €6.75m in 2014 to about €42.15m recently—which the authority says forces procedural and staffing changes that give it the final decision on support.