Costs and payments

Childcare in daycare centres and child day care is free of charge for all children. If your child receives lunch, you as parents contribute to the costs with a catering contribution of 23 euros per month.

If a valid berlinpass-BuT is presented, this catering contribution has no longer be paid; additionally children can take part in excursions free of charge.

Families who receive citizen’s allowance, social assistance, child supplement, housing benefit or benefits under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act can apply for benefits for their children under the Education and Participation Act (BuT) and receive the berlinpass-BuT.

Berlin is continuing its family-friendly policy and offering many parents significant financial relief. At the same time, the state is promoting the compatibility of family and career and investing in early childhood education. Daycare centres are educational institutions and education must be free of charge.

Daycare centres are allowed to charge additional payments for extra services such as additional sports activities, organic food or language lessons. The new regulation provides for an upper limit of 100 euros per month per child from January 2025 in order to protect you as parents from unreasonable financial demands.

An existing notification procedure will create additional transparency.

A new possibility has been created for providers – under certain conditions and with the approval of the Senate Administration – to charge additional payments of more than 100 euros per month.

Specifically, the regulations (continue to) provide for the following:

The conclusion of a childcare contract may not be made dependent on additional payments. Every provider is obliged to offer you a place on request for which no co-payments are required.

It must be possible to cancel a co-payment agreement at any time with one month’s notice to the end of the month. Cancellation by the parents must not lead to cancellation of the childcare contract by the provider.

Co-payments are regular, usually monthly, payments for additional services. Payments for one-off events as part of the daycare centre’s daily routine are not included.

Different regulations apply to parent-initiated daycare centres (EKT). These are facilities founded and managed by parents themselves. Parents can become members of the organisation, have a say in rights and obligations and influence additional services and co-payments.

You are not entitled to a co-payment-free place in an ECT. Agreed co-payments cannot be cancelled unilaterally. In principle, the majority decision in the sponsoring organisation applies here. However, the new upper limit of 100 euros also applies to these centres. This means that agreed co-payments or co-operation in an ECC are binding and cannot be unilaterally refused by you. However, in cases of financial hardship, the provider should reduce the co-payment for a limited period of time without the children being excluded from the services. An agreed obligation for parents to volunteer (e.g. cleaning, cooking, repairs) in the daycare centre is only permissible to the extent that is usual and appropriate for voluntary parental work.

Additional payments may not affect services already financed by the state of Berlin.

• Admission fees, deposits, reservation fees, retention fees, initial equipment amounts and comparable payments,
• Payments to finance the sponsor’s share,
• Contributions to the costs of legally prescribed staff and room standards,
• Additional payments for additional staff if the prescribed staffing ratio is not met (NEW),
• Contributions to provider costs (e.g. for management and administration, tax advice, cleaning),
• regulations that are linked to mandatory membership of the sponsoring organisation or a support association.

• up to 40 euros: Services can be offered as a package. The individual amounts must be listed.
• Over 40 euros: If the total amount exceeds 40 euros per child and month, parents must be able to make an individual selection from the special benefits offered by the provider. The grouping of benefits into packages remains permissible if the parents can unilaterally determine the total amount of their additional payments (model of voluntary self-classification). In this case, the provider is obliged to point out to the parents that the co-payment amount chosen by them may not exceed a total of 100 euros per child and month, unless the exceptional case for co-payment regulations over 100 euros is fulfilled.

Additional payments are generally only permitted up to an amount of 100 euros per child per month.

Exceeding this limit is only possible in exceptional cases and under the following conditions:

• a special additional offer that relates to or can be derived from the educational concept of the centre,
• the compelling necessity of the additional payment to finance the additional offer,
• the submission of a corresponding declaration per centre to the Senate Department responsible for youth, using the attached form and enclosing all the documents mentioned therein.

The collection of an additional payment exceeding the upper limit by the provider is only permitted after confirmation of fulfilment of the requirements by the Senate Administration.

Additional payment agreements must be concluded in writing.

If the monthly additional payment exceeds 40 euros, you must provide evidence of the use of the payment once a year.