Childcare
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Childcare
The Berlin district offices allocate spots in daycares and preschools and with in-home childcare providers. The requirement is a Day care voucher (Kitagutschein) that must be requested from the responsible district office with the Youth Welfare Office. You can find application forms (only available in German) for downloading on the official Berlin website.
The Studierendenwerk Berlin (Berlin Student Union) organization operates the childcare facility “Villa March” on the TU’s property with 112 spots for children between two months and school age as well as a childcare facility with 60 spots close to the train station S-Bahnhof Tiergarten (Siegmunds Hof). TU students and employees have priority for spots in the “Villa March.” The facility Siegmunds Hof offers spots for the children of TU and UdK students and employees. A waiting list is kept for allocating spots in the childcare facilities. Please note: You will also need a “Kitagutschein” (day care voucher) from the district office if you would like a spot in the Berlin Student Unions’ childcare facilities.
The day-care centres ("Kitas") are be free of charge for all children in the State of Berlin. Parents will then only pay a contribution for meals. Kitas are allowed to charge limited co-payments for extra services such as additional sports activities, organic food or language lessons.
The day care voucher can be applied for at the youth welfare office in your residential district no earlier than nine months or later than two months before the desired start of care. In your application you will provide information about your child and the desired childcare time, among other things.
You can either use the online form (only available in German) or print out the Registration for the support of children in day care facilities (only available in German) and fill out the registration by hand.
A short one-page application will be generated automatically after you have filled in the online form. You have to print this out, sign it and send it to your district youth welfare office. You may need to enclose copies of supporting documents with the application (e.g. a certificate of enrollment).
In Berlin, more childcare spots are provided by organizations run by parents (Eltern-Kind-Tagesstätte, EKT). Spots in these facilities are not allocated by the district offices but by the organization itself. However, you will also need a “Kitagutschein” from the district office. You can find an overview of the existing EKTs from the umbrella association Berliner Kinder- und Schülerläden e.V. (DaKS), and on the DaKS website (only available in German) there is also a database showing open spots.
Information, including on childcare in emergency situations, can be found in the Berlin Student Unions´ (Studierendenwerk Berlin) brochure “Studieren mit Kind (Studying as a parent)” (only available in German).
You can also get advice on childcare in the TU´s Family Services Office.
Further offers
Taking your child to University
Sometimes the question is asked whether you can take your child into a lecture. Usually this situation is not optimal for the parent or the child, but in some circumstances there’s no other possibility. You do not have the right to take your child to the lectures, but on the other hand it is also not forbidden. Ask the instructor whether they have concerns about you bringing your child to their course. If you talk to them in advance, you will often find them to be very understanding!
To give you the chance to make your time on campus as comfortable as possible with your child, the TU Berlin has introduced several measures. You can find an overview on the Family Office’s website
Flexible childcare
Since the beginning of 2015, the Family Office has cooperated with “Die Kinderwelt GmbH” to give TU Berlin students and employees the possibility to have their children between 8 weeks and 12 years of age taken care of on an hourly basis on the TU campus. More...
Vacation childcare
As school and university vacations are rarely at exactly the same time, the Family Services Office and TU Berlin's Tandem project offer vacation childcare for the (school) children of TU Berlin students as part of their measures to promote compatibility of studies and family life.
Parent and toddler rooms
On the TU campuses (Campus Charlottenburg and TIB/Technologie- und Innovationspark Berlin), there are several Parent and toddler rooms that you can use to work, study, breastfeed, or relax with your children. You can see where they are here...
Changing tables
Baby changing tables can now be found in many places on the TU campus. Some of them are in the parent and toddler rooms so that you can also use the rooms for breastfeeding. In the following, you will find an overview of baby changing stations and parent and toddler rooms in the various TU buildings.