The first point of contact for deferral requests is the respective primary school.
Children who turn six years old in the first half of the year (January 1st to June 30th) are required to start school in the summer (August 1st) of the same year. Under certain circumstances, these children can be deferred from starting school.
An application can be approved if the child's intellectual, emotional, physical, or linguistic development does not suggest successful school attendance, but it is expected that better starting conditions will exist in a year, thus enabling successful enrollment. Special educational needs are generally not grounds for deferral.
For the year their school entry is held back, children are enrolled in a pre-school class at a school. In justified exceptional cases, it may be permitted for deferred children to attend a daycare center instead. Attendance at the respective educational institution is mandatory.
More Information
Publisher
Hamburg
Last update or date of publication
Contact
The government service telephone number 115 – your point of contact for questions related to the federal, state and local.
Monday through Friday from 8:00 to 18:00 (and beyond these times in some regions).
Call 115 nowGovernment service telephone number calls are charged at local rates.
- Application by the legal guardian or hearing record
- Accompanying form for the deferral application G 11
- Statement from the school administration
- School doctor's report
- Possibly further expert opinions, if relevant
Preconditions
- Application by parent/guardian or school
- The 6th year of life must have been completed between January 1st and June 30th of the year.
- The child's development must be impaired.
- A significant improvement can be expected through deferral.
- Approval from the authorities is required.
Hints
- Children who have not reached their sixth birthday within the specified period cannot be deferred. There is no room for discretion in this matter.
- Children born on January 1st of a given year reach their 6th birthday on December 31st of the previous year and therefore cannot be deferred.
- Children born on July 1st of a given year turn 6 on June 30th of the same year and can therefore be deferred.
- Special educational needs are generally not a reason for deferral.
fee
- Advance payment
- no
Basis for legal action
- Section 38 of the Hamburg School Law
- Section 37 of the Hamburg School Law
- § 28a Hamburg School Law
- Section 187 of the Civil Code
Legal Remedies
You can file an objection to a decision within one month. This objection does not have suspensive effect. However, costs may be incurred if the objection procedure is wholly or partially unsuccessful.
Procedure
- Introduction of the child in primary school
- Appointment with the school doctor
- Submission of all documents to the desired school
- Submit an informal request for deferral to your preferred school (it does not have to be a primary school on the waiting list).
- School administration reviews application
- The school may forward the application to the regionally responsible case worker.
- The family will receive notification of the decision.
Deadlines
The application should be submitted together with the registration for first grade. During the four-and-a-half-year medical examination, it can already be suggested that a postponement of school entry is being considered.
Applications must be submitted before July 31st of the year the child starts school. Applications received after this date cannot be considered, as compulsory schooling will have already begun by then.
Processing time
The processing time depends on the individual case.