Municipality/Region

Heilbronn, Germany

Summary

This practice implemented by the district of Heilbronn (Germany) has three main elements:

• Introduction of testing for newly arrived school children, aged 10-15, to find the most suitable kind of school and make the most of their educational potential
• Introduction of parent mentors as interpreters for meetings with parents in kindergartens and schools
• Obtaining funding from the state of Baden-Württemberg and the national level to achieve strategic integration objectives

Areas of integration covered by practice

• Integration of migrants in the education system
• Funding for integration

Background and purpose

By testing newly arrived school children, the practice enables individually tailored integration in the education system and prevents discrimination in educational placement based on lack of German-language skills. Parent mentors furthermore strengthen the partnership between newly arrived parents and the kindergarten or school. Since the integration of migrants is a voluntary municipal task, it is important to find sources of funding beyond the municipal budget to expand the scope of sustainable integration efforts.

Timeframe

The district began testing of newly arrived school children in September 2018. Parent mentors have been active since mid-2017. Funding take-up started in January 2016.

How does it work?

Testing of newly arrived pupils

The municipal population registration offices report newly arrived pupils to the Landkreis (district), which invites the pupils for testing in Mathematics and English. Once the results have been assessed by the state's school board, the district's education coordination office looks for an appropriate school. The aim of testing is to find the most suitable kind of school that will help pupils make the most of their potential, regardless of their knowledge of German at the time of testing.

Parent mentors

The district looks for people who speak German and at least one other language and gives them training as volunteer parent mentors. The parent mentors interpret for parents who do not speak German and help to inform the parents about the German education system. The district sends parent mentors at the request of kindergartens and schools, and the parent mentors are compensated for their expenses.

Funding take-up

Project staff examine national, federal and EU-level funding options, make applications, plan budgets and transfer funding to towns and municipalities.

Results and evaluation

Testing of newly arrived pupils

Testing has significantly increased the number of newly arrived pupils going to a Realschule or Gymnasium—the two higher tiers of secondary education. There has also been an evaluation of testing statistics.

Parent mentors

There are 114 parent mentors, who have had more than 1,000 assignments in 38 different languages.

Funding take-up

The district was able to distribute around € 1.8 million in 2018 for all integration-related practices.

Funding

Testing of newly arrived pupils

The state of Baden-Württemberg provides funding to support parental involvement in the amount of € 1,200 per year, which is used to set up a parents’ café during the testing.

Parent mentors

€ 60,000 per year is allocated to the parent mentor programmes. Under its integration provisions, Baden-Württemberg funds € 20,000 of this total amount, while the rest comes from the district’s own resources.

Funding take-up

The funding take-up efforts require staff, such as an integration officer. For staffing costs, the programme received support from Baden-Württemberg under its integration provisions.

Contact

Katharina Fischer, Head of Integration Planning, Migration and Integration Office

Email: migrationundintegration@landratsamt-heilbronn.de 

Further information

Information about parent mentors is available on the district’s website, along with a brochure on education in Heilbronn.