Application

Childcare places

Coordinated allocation across all providers: fewer multiple offers, faster placement, transparent criteria.

10+

municipalities use the procedure

German states

since 2019

in operation

1 week

for the coordinated allocation

Procedure In use Materials Publications

Starting point

The problem

Parents apply to several childcare centres at once, and each centre allocates its places on its own. Some families hold several offers while others wait, even though places would be available. The shortage looks larger than it is, and centre managers spend weeks working through waiting lists.

Approach

The solution

A shared procedure coordinates which centre makes an offer to which family, and when. Providers keep their own admission criteria; the procedure only ensures that offers are not blocked and that released places are passed on immediately.

The procedure

State preferences. Parents list several preferred childcare centres in order through a central registration.
Apply priorities. Each centre ranks its applications by its own admission criteria, such as age, siblings or place of residence.
Coordinate offers. Families receive offers over several rounds. Each family holds at most one offer; if it accepts a better one, the previous place is released immediately.
Pass on free places. Released places go to the next suitable family in the following round, until no further improvement is possible.

What the procedure guarantees

No family holds more than one place at a time.
No place stays empty while a family prefers it to its current offer and has priority under the centre’s criteria.
Listing additional preferences does not reduce the chance of getting one’s first choice.
Providers continue to decide according to their own criteria.

The procedure does not create new places. It does ensure that existing places are allocated quickly and according to need, and it shows how many places are actually missing locally. It is based on an iterative deferred acceptance mechanism that also works in a decentralised way.

In use

Under the name KitaMatch, the procedure is used in more than ten municipalities in three German states. In 2022 the ZEW Sponsors’ Association recognised the project as the best economic policy advisory project at ZEW.

since 2024

Tübingen

The university city has allocated its childcare places with KitaMatch since the main allocation round for the 2024/25 year. Registration runs through a central office; parents list several preferred centres in order.

since 2019

Kaiserslautern

The city was among the first municipalities to allocate childcare places in a coordinated way across all providers.

since 2019

Steinfurt district, Greven and Emsdetten

Allocation in the Steinfurt district has run on KitaMatch since 2019; experience there formed the basis of the public guide. Greven and Emsdetten use the procedure as well.