What happens after the Easter holidays?

Schools open or closed?

How school lessons will continue after the Easter holidays is basically decided independently by the federal states. You can find the current status for your federal state under Corona-was-darf-ich (Corona-what-do-you-call-it). However, the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (Kultusministerkonferenz) has arranged another meeting for next Thursday, 8 April, at which it will probably also be decided whether the schools will remain open and offer alternating classes, or whether they will be closed again and switch to distance learning. If the schools remain open in principle, a decision would also have to be made about compulsory attendance or its abolition.

So far, the education ministers have always been relatively steadfast and have decided that schools should be the last to be closed if there is no other way at all. Even the last meeting of the Chancellor with the Minister Presidents did not change this (see here).

However, today the Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia, who is also the federal chairman of the CDU, spoke out in favor of a hard lockdown that would last two to three weeks. This should also affect the economy more: "There are still too many people on the move to the workplace." A new conference of the prime ministers with the Chancellor is to decide on the lockdown, which is to take place this week - rather than next Monday (12 April).

He did not say anything about the situation of the schools, but it is not excluded that the schools will be closed again nationwide from next week and that there will be a switch to distance learning. Finally, the incidence values are already particularly high again and children and adolescents in particular are also more strongly affected (see in more detail here).

At the moment the situation is therefore unclear. We will keep you informed as soon as something becomes apparent.

Kitas open or closed?

With the exception of Hamburg and Berlin, where the day-care centres have been back in emergency operation since January (Hamburg) and from Thursday, 8 April, the day-care centres in all the other federal states have remained open for the time being. However, there are very different regulations, which are sometimes called restricted regular operation, sometimes extended emergency operation - or even differently. Since it can change from day to day or week to week, we recommend that you check Corona-was-darf-ich from time to time to see which regulations are currently in effect. You will also be informed by the daycare management if something changes..

Emergency operation

If daycare centers or schools are closed, there is usually an emergency service for both daycare centers and elementary schools that parents can use under certain conditions. Sometimes children in the 5th or 6th grade can also make use of the emergency care, if these do not count as elementary schools, as is the case in Berlin or Brandenburg.

The prerequisites for the use of emergency care usually include that the parents work in an occupation relevant to care or are single parents. However, there are often further detailed regulations - therefore, please also look up or ask at your Kita or school.

Children's sick days or children's sick pay

If the daycare centers or schools are closed and you cannot use the emergency care, you can use the so-called children's sick days. See the individual regulations here.

However, if you've had to use them since the beginning of the year, you may soon run out of child sick days. It remains to be seen whether the legislator reacts to this situation - actually, there should be a further extension.

Published on 06.04.2021