Kindergarten fees in Jena to become fairer

Kindergarten fees in Jena are to be recalculated from the fall. A draft amendment to the fee statutes is to be submitted to the city council for approval on August 27, 2025. An important goal is a fairer distribution of fees.

Initial situation: mandate from the city council in view of rising costs

What preceded this step? In December 2024, the City Council instructed the Lord Mayor to submit a draft for an amended fee statute with the resolution on the 2025/26 double budget. The previous statutes have essentially been in force since 2015.

Recalculation of daycare fees: What will change?

The proposal includes leaving the flat-rate deductions from income and the basic allowance of 1,130 euros unchanged. However, the fee rate is to be reduced from 13% to 10%. This means that significantly fewer households will have to pay the maximum rate. Previously, this applied to around 60 percent of all households with kindergarten children - in future, according to the proposal, only around 40 percent.

"Many of the households that previously paid the maximum fee will then fall below the maximum amount," says Johannes Schleußner, Head of Education, Youth, Culture and Sport. In future, the maximum rate will apply from a chargeable income of 4,130 euros - previously the limit was 2,861 euros. "Families with medium and low incomes will clearly benefit from the recalculation," says Schleußner.

The allowances for the second and third child are each to be increased from 400 euros to 580 euros. The increase in the allowances means significant financial relief for families with several children entitled to child benefit in the household. The maximum allowance for one, two and three children will rise from 225, 173 and 121 euros to 300, 242 and 184 euros respectively. This applies to employee households (depending on the number of children) with a gross monthly income of 5,580 to 6,452 euros.

Rising costs per childcare place

While the maximum amounts have not changed since 2015, the costs of childcare facilities have risen steadily. This growing imbalance is to be countered with the recalculation of fees. The operating costs for a childcare place in Jena have risen significantly in recent years. While they were still at 8,400 euros per year in 2015, they have risen to 12,700 euros by 2024. The proportion financed by parents (including the subsidies paid by the state for the last two non-contributory kindergarten years) was 17% in 2015 and 12% in 2024. When the new fee statutes take effect, the annual net income is expected to increase by 14%.

The attached chart shows the development of kindergarten fees in relation to household income (new vs. old)

Grafik Kindergartengebühren