Local authorities may not set parental contribution rates for daycare centres operated by independent youth welfare organisations. This has now been decided by the Federal Administrative Court (BVerwG) (Ref.: 5 CN 1.24 of 29.01.2026).

In the underlying case, a municipality in Lower Saxony, which does not operate any daycare centres itself, had issued a statute on parental contributions for attending a daycare centre in the municipality. However, at that time, there were only four independently-run daycare centres in its area of application. The independent providers concluded childcare contracts with the parents and agreed contributions in accordance with the statutes.

In a judicial review procedure, some of the children's parents objected to this procedure and wanted to have the statutes declared invalid. After the Higher Administrative Court rejected their application due to an alleged lack of authorisation to apply, they were successful in their appeal to the Federal Administrative Court. The court declared the statutes invalid. The local authority could not issue a fee statute for the facilities of independent providers because it lacked the legal authorisation to do so. It is true that public youth welfare organisations are authorised to set cost contributions for the support of children in their own day facilities (Section 90 Para. 1 No. 3 SGB VIII). However, this authorisation does not extend to independent providers.