Full-day care for primary school children: where the federal states currently stand

No primary school child should have to take care of themselves after school when their parents go to work. Promoting the compatibility of family and career is an important goal of the All-Day Childcare Promotion Act (GaFöG). With the law passed in 2021, the federal and state governments want to accelerate the expansion of needs-based education and care services for children of primary school age. The GaFöG provides for a step-by-step introduction of the legal entitlement for children of primary school age from the 2026/2027 school year onwards.

Prognos prepares the report on the expansion of all-day educational and care services for primary school children (GaFöG report) for the Federal Ministry for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMBFSFJ), which is anchored in the GaFöG. This report is submitted to the Bundestag annually.

The the third GaFöG report was published on 3 December 2025.

Go directly to the third GaFöG report (web magazine)

Overview of the results of the GaFöG reports

GaFöG report 2025

The third GaFöG report was published on 3 December 2025. These are the key findings:

Status of expansion of all-day care for primary school children

• In the 2023/2024 school year, around 1.9 million primary school children attended full-day education and care programmes, representing an increase of 69,000 children (+3.8 per cent) compared to the previous year. This positive development shows that more and more families are taking advantage of full-day programmes.
• Around 57 per cent of children aged between 6.5 and 10.5 attended an all-day school or after-school care centre during this school year (+ 1 per cent compared to the previous year).

Regional differences

• The use of all-day educational services for primary school children continues to be characterised by a sharp east-west divide.
• While the eastern German states show a consistently high level of use, the use of all-day programmes is only increasing slightly in most western German states. In eastern Germany, 84 per cent of children attended such a programme in the 2023/2024 school year, compared to 51 per cent in western Germany.
• The states are pursuing different expansion strategies. While the eastern German states tend to prioritise the qualitative expansion of existing programmes, the western German states are focusing on quantitative expansion.

Demand for all-day education and childcare programmes

• 65 per cent of parents want all-day childcare for their primary school children, which represents an increase of one percentage point over the previous year.
• Despite the expansion of provision, many parents in western German states are unable to find the childcare places they want. This suggests that provision often does not match demand, including with regard to holiday care.

Need for expansion in all-day care

• In view of demographic developments and the legal right to all-day care, at least 166,000 additional places must be created nationwide by 2026/2027.
• This need for expansion is mainly concentrated in western German states.
• The eastern German states, on the other hand, are increasingly faced with the challenge of managing overcapacity due to declining numbers of children.

Measures to prepare for and implement the legal entitlement

• In preparation for the legal entitlement, which will come into force in stages from the 2026/2027 school year, the federal and state governments have further intensified their joint efforts.
• The federal government is supporting the expansion with financial assistance from the special fund ‘Expansion of all-day education and care services for children of primary school age’ totalling 3.5 billion euros for the period 2020 to 2029.
• Despite this funding, the take-up rate of the funds has been low so far, which is attributed to various bureaucratic hurdles, uncertainties in construction planning and delays in approvals.
• While many federal states assess the staffing situation in all-day schools as positive, some federal states take a more critical view and do not expect the situation to improve in the future. There is still a need for action in terms of both the number and qualifications of staff.

Focus topic: All-day schooling from the parents' perspective

• The interviews with parents make it clear that all-day education and care are seen as a necessary part of family life, improving the structure of everyday family life and promoting children's well-being.
• Positive aspects such as the promotion of independence, social skills and the compatibility of family and career are highlighted. However, many parents also express a desire for more flexibility, more reliable care hours and improved quality of lunch in the facilities.
• Overall, parents want full-day care that is child-centred, reliable, education-oriented and inclusive. This should meet the needs of the children as well as the requirements of everyday family life.

GaFöG report 2024

The second GaFöG report was published on December 4, 2024.

Key findings:

• In the 2022/2023 school year, approximately 1.8 million children of primary school age attended an all-day school or after-school program. That is 130,000 more children than in the previous year - an above-average increase. In the 2022/2023 school year, a total of around 56 percent of primary school-age children attended all-day school or day care. This represents an increase of one percentage point over the previous year.
• In most federal states, the expansion of all-day education and care services in the past year took place primarily or exclusively in the school sector. In the 2022/2023 school year, 73 percent of all primary schools in Germany were organized on a full-time basis. After-school care services were expanded primarily in the eastern German federal states.
• In order to meet the demand for childcare, at least 271,000 new places (+15 percent) will have to be created nationwide by the 2026/2027 school year. The need for expansion has decreased significantly compared to the first GaFöG report.
• A survey of the responsible bodies in the federal states in May 2024 shows that the majority of the federal states consider the range of all-day places for children of primary school age at that time to (rather) meet demand. Assessments of the coverage of prospective demand for places in the 2026/2027 school year are even more positive.
• Differences between the federal states in the implementation of the investment program for the expansion of all-day care can be seen in the forms of provision funded: a majority of the western German states fund school-based services, while half of the eastern German states prefer to fund cooperation between the school sector and child and youth welfare.
• The majority of the federal states also support the expansion of all-day care with additional state funds.
• The management of the all-day programs rate the interprofessional cooperation with partners and the increasingly flexible and comprehensive care times positively.
• On the other hand, they consider the personnel resources, the qualifications of the staff and the spatial design of the all-day program to be not satisfactory.

GaFöG report 2023

The BMFSFJ published the first GaFöG report on December 6, 2023.

Key results:

• In the 2021/2022 school year, around 1.7 million children of primary school age attended an all-day school program or a day care center for school children (after-school care). This corresponded to around 55 percent of all children of primary school age.
• The education and care services for primary school-age children have been significantly expanded in all federal states in recent years and decades. The result is a diverse range of services.
• In order to be able to provide demand-meeting offers by the school year 2026/2027, taking into account the demographic development, the care wishes of parents and the gradual entry into force of the legal claim, around 393,000 new places must be created nationwide. This applies at least if parental needs do not change in the future. If, on the other hand, parental demand increases, around 545,000 additional places will be needed by 2026/2027. On average, this means around 470,000 additional places
• With a view to the introduction of the legal entitlement, there is a wide range of preparatory measures in the federal states. The financial assistance provided by the federal government has so far mainly contributed to the qualitative expansion of the number of places.
• Experts in the field of all-day education continue to view the staffing, financial and spatial resources of all-day education, further training for staff and parental involvement as critical.
• Cross-state agreements on “guidelines” such as the recommendations of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK) of October 12, 2023 can serve as a guide for states and local authorities and help to reduce the differences in the quality of all-day provision.

Our approach

The development of all-day education and childcare services for primary school children is examined on the basis of the KMK's all-day school statistics and the official child and youth welfare statistics. Parental needs are presented on the basis of the German Youth Institute's childcare study, a nationwide survey of parents. In order to calculate the number of all-day places that will be needed in the future, the population of primary school age is also projected up to the 2029/2030 school year.

The measures taken by the federal and state governments to prepare for and implement the legal entitlement are presented primarily on the basis of the state-specific funding guidelines and administrative data on the federal investment programs, as well as an online survey of the federal states.

In cooperation with ITES, qualitative questions on the further development of existing all-day programs are answered. To this end, surveys of school principals, parents and children as well as case studies in municipalities are conducted.

Links and Download

GaFöG Report 2025 (PDF, in German)

GaFöG Report 2024 (PDF, in German)

GaFöG Report 2023 (PDF, in German)

Webmagazine GaFöG Report 2025 (in German)

More on our work in this area (in German) 

Project team: Gwendolyn Huschik, Sören Mohr, Paula Kostrzewa, Dr Anna Marina Schmidt, Dr Dagmar Weßler-Poßberg

Last update: 03.12.2025