Starting in the 2025/2026 school year, Bremen will permanently introduce systemic school support with the goal of enabling all children to attend school together. This was decided by the Bremen Senate at its meeting.
Lengthy application process is no longer necessary
This eliminates lengthy application processes for individual school support for families, as children with special educational needs in the area of social behavior receive immediate assistance as part of the school's support concept. The new program is based on the positive results of a pilot phase that began in the 2022/2023 school year.
Schooling together – despite differing needs
Senator for Children and Education, Sascha Karolin Aulepp: “In inclusive schools, all children and young people are taught together. Every child is different, and all need different support, but all belong together in the classroom community. They receive what they need for their development and learning success best from people who are there for all the children in the classroom, working as a team and providing support from a single source. Experience with the systemic provision of school support staff shows that this works in the best interests of the children when all school staff work together as a team on equal footing, and when we can offer the support staff good working conditions.”
"Inclusion that truly deserves its name"
The Senator for Labor, Social Affairs, Youth and Integration, Dr. Claudia Schilling, emphasizes: “The path of systemic equipment in schools is, for us, the decisive step towards inclusion that truly deserves its name. The model effectively counteracts the exclusion of an entire group of children and young people and gives them the certainty of belonging.”
Support services are intended to be provided within the system
For some time now, primary schools in Bremen have been systematically allocated special education teacher hours for the support areas of learning, language, and behavior. This means that these hours are provided as a support service within the system and allocated internally by the schools, without requiring individual assertion of legal entitlements. In the 2022/23 school year, a further step was taken with the introduction of a systemic approach to support for students with (impending) mental disabilities.
Pilot phase starts in Bremen West
In a pilot project starting in the 2022/2023 school year, Bremen primary schools tested this model, in which inclusion specialists and support staff are deployed as needed to assist students with disabilities. The first pilot phase began for grades 1 to 4 in three primary schools in western Bremen. From the 2023/2024 school year, the pilot phase was extended to grades 1 and 2 at twelve additional primary schools. The pilot phase was overseen by the Senator for Children and Education and the Senator for Labor, Social Affairs, Youth and Integration, with the support of external evaluation partners such as the University of Wuppertal and the University of Bielefeld.
Individual accompaniment is hardly available anymore
“The systemic support model has proven to be a real success story during the pilot phase,” said Senator Dr. Schilling. “Thanks to the systemic resources, individual support for students with special educational needs is now rarely necessary.” Exceptions include children with a particularly high degree of autism. While the coverage rate was previously only around 60 percent, now, with a few justified exceptions, all children with special educational needs can receive systemic support.
Positive reaction from schools and ZEB
School principals, teachers, and parents alike have rated the measure very positively. Schools can react flexibly to acute problems and benefit from reduced workload for teaching staff, leading to better use of class time and ultimately improved learning outcomes. The Bremen Central Parents' Council (ZEB) also praises the model as "an effective contribution to achieving inclusion for all children in school education."
Gradual expansion starting in the 2020/2026 school year
The planned expansion of the pilot project will begin gradually in the 2025/2026 school year. Up to 25 additional primary schools, including grades 1 and 2, can join the current 15 pilot schools starting next school year. Initially, the program will be extended to all primary schools with social indices 4 and 5. Further primary schools with other social indices, as well as the first secondary schools, particularly in western Bremen, will follow from the 2025/26 school year onward to ensure continuity of support for students transitioning from primary to secondary school. The plan is to make systemic school support a permanent feature, both for students with (impending) mental disabilities (Section 35a of the German Social Code, Book VIII) and for students with physical or motor disabilities (Section 112 of the German Social Code, Book IX).
The costs are borne by two departments
The program's costs amount to €3.8 million for the 2025 fiscal year. The Senator for Labor, Social Affairs, Youth, and Integration is contributing €3 million of this sum, while the Senator for Children and Education is funding €800,000. This budget covers the continuation of the pilot measures until July 2025 and the expansion of the program in the following 2025/2026 school year. The goal is to gradually provide all primary and secondary schools in the city of Bremen with systemic support over the next few years. The relevant committees will address these further steps separately. The next committee to discuss the planned expansion of systemic support in schools is the City Committee for Children and Education, which will meet on May 13.
Source: Press Office of the Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, The Senator for Children and Education / The Senator for Labour, Social Affairs, Youth and Integration, Press Release , 08.04.2025