Homeschooling in Germany

Forget it, home schooling is not allowed in Germany although some religious fanatics have tried to challenge this in court. School is a fundamental part of belonging to society.

Attending a government-registered school is compulsory for all kids resident in Germany, from 6 years onwards for at least 9 years.
Parents can be (and have been) jailed for not sending their kids to school.

When we lived in Berlin and sent our kids to a private school, within a week of the school semester starting, we received a registered summons from the local government ready to get the law after us because they noticed our kids hadn't showed up at the local public school.  I had to present documentation from the private school to get us off the hook.  You can't live with a child of school age in Germany and NOT send them to school.  End of story.

Hi there,

We moved to Germany in July 2017 and unfortunately not near an international school. My 11 year old at the time had to attend a German school and was put into a refugee class. My only problem with this was he was in a class with 16 - 19 year olds and many of them had not held a pen in their lives before.
We tried everything we could to homeschool him but it is illegal in most European countries. We eventually moved to Austria 18 months later where he now attends an international school and was put back a year.
I wish you all the success and hope you are able to homeschool your children.

Regards

Lisa

Lisa3 wrote:

Hi there,

We moved to Germany in July 2017 and unfortunately not near an international school. My 11 year old at the time had to attend a German school and was put into a refugee class. My only problem with this was he was in a class with 16 - 19 year olds and many of them had not held a pen in their lives before.
We tried everything we could to homeschool him but it is illegal in most European countries. We eventually moved to Austria 18 months later where he now attends an international school and was put back a year.
I wish you all the success and hope you are able to homeschool your children.

Regards

Lisa

There is no such thing as a “refugee's class” in public schools. But one could end up in a class with some refugees or other immigrants that don't speak German. But sorry, the very idea that there are refugees that “never had a pen in their hand is BS propaganda. Most refugees are literate. And that a 11 year old is placed in a school class with 16 to 19 year olds is not done in Germany. Where should all of this have happened because I have to strongly believe you are simply spreading disinformation? And nothing wrong with international schools, if one has an extra 1000 Euros a month to pay for them!  If people feel the local school has deficits then they can get after school tutoring, much cheaper and simpler than home schooling would be.

There are no "refugee classes" - they are called "integration classes" and designed to teach non-German-speaking kids the basics needed to enter normal classes. These kids are grouped not by age, but by prior knowledge.
Some of the attending kids might of course be less fortunate than yours and have lost out on good education due to war or poverty (therefore had to enter a class with your much younger child). In 2017, there were especially many of them from Syria - but berating them as "not held a pen in their lives before" is certainly not justified, as in my experience (from volunteering in refugee assistance) most of them can perfectly read and write Arabic, just not our Latin lettering.
I can understand that this might be an emotional issue for a mother overwhelmed by the situation, but reacting to it with bigotry does not help anyone.

An interesting news article from this year about a family that had been fighting to be alowed to home school their children and loosing the fight.

European court rules against German homeschooling family

Thanks SimCity, this is a good article.
The family portrayed in it is called "Wunderlich", which is the German word for "weird" - and that is exactly how it will be seen by the ones around them. Do not expect any sympathy or understanding by the general populace if you try anything similar!

Hi

We are about to travel to Germany in January 2023 as we got a job offer from the employer. Due to some reasons, my elder daughter was under the homeschool of Cambridge syllabus for Grade 5 (year 6) so it will end by March 2023. So our concern is that can she be back to normal school in Germany.

Does anyone pls help on this matter feel free to message us at [link moderated]

Thanking you

Vimal And Nisha

@Vimal Vincent93 For your own safety, do not publish personal contact details on the open forum. It has been removed from your post above. Please read the forum rules!

Home schooling is not allowed in Germany, and all kids at the appropriate age must attend school in person.

It is up to you to decide, from the available options, which school is best for your kid. There are public schools (with all teaching in German, some "bilingual" ones teach less important subjects in English), private and international schools (with high fees) and also special needs schools. There are also separate integration classes to help bring foreign kids up to speed (not only in the language).

Every town has a "Schulamt" (school authority), which can help you understand the available options and make a decision.

@beppi not ture. there are private and supplementary schools. You do not have to send your kids to government-run schools if you have a way to do so.

@tgool

Beppi mentioned that there are private schools in Germany, nobody has said otherwise - so he wasn't wrong about anything. He mentioned what is not allowed is home schooling, which is a fact. Maybe trying reading a post again before making such comments.