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Eurydice

EACEA National Policies Platform:Eurydice
National reforms in early childhood education and care

Austria

14.Ongoing reforms and policy developments

14.1National reforms in early childhood education and care

Last update: 27 November 2023
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2023

Extension of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) (Ausbau der Kinderbetreuungseinrichtungen) - new agreement

Regulation and legislative documents 

Status: Agreement concerning 2022/23-2026/27 - childcare offensive until 2030

Sources: 

Description:

The main focus of these expansion efforts is on child care offerings for children under 3 years of age, promoting qualified child-minder offerings, and extending opening times during the year. Childcare places for 3 to 6-year-olds will also be funded in order to close regional gaps in childcare.

Measures:

  • focus on the expansion of institutional child care for children under the age of three
  • flexibilisation and extension of opening hours
  • impulses to improve the quality of care, especially the ratio of the number of children care by the number of kindergarten teachers
  • promoting childminders as an alternative and supplement to kindergarten
  • continuation of the non-contributory compulsory kindergarten for five-year-olds
  • intensification and further development of language support
  • obligatory teaching of values of Austrian society
  • improved qualification of the qualified staff and specialized linguistic teachers
  • focus on the transition from kindergarten to school
  • definitions of a compulsory quality frame work through mandatory pedagogical documents and educational goals

Amount of funding:

The federal government will spend a total of 1 billion Euro on earmarked subsidies during the next five years.

Chancellor Karl Nehammer is aiming for a childcare offensive. Together with the federal states, 4.5 billion euros are to be made available by 2030 to close the childcare gap between one and three years of age.

Monitoring:

The respective regional governments are responsible for monitoring compliance with the statutory obligations and supervising the staff and materials used in public kindergartens (nursing schools), which includes, among other things, a kindergarten inspectorate.

Involved bodies:

2022

Extension of ECEC - old agreement

Agreement concerning 2017/18 - 20221/22 expired

2021

There have been no reforms.