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School counseling; utilization

Counseling teachers and school psychologists at the local schools or at the nine state school counseling centers are available to students, parents and teachers.

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Beethovenstr. 4
86150 Augsburg

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Beethovenstr. 4

86150 Augsburg

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Procedure details

Your child's teachers are the first point of contact for questions about education and upbringing. In addition, the state school counseling service in Bavaria is available to you through counseling teachers, school psychologists at your child's school and at the state school counseling centers.

The state school counseling service helps to identify a pupil's talents, make use of their abilities and take advantage of the wide range of educational opportunities. It provides help with school problems and supports parents and teachers in their educational tasks. In cases of inclusion, it provides assistance for school administrators, teachers, legal guardians and pupils. The state school counseling service is open to pupils from all types of schools. It is neutral, confidential, solution-oriented, voluntary and free of charge for those seeking advice.

Counseling bodies at schools in Bavaria are

  • the individual teacher,
  • the counseling teacher responsible for each school,
  • the school psychologist responsible for the respective school and
  • the state school counseling office in the respective counseling district.

For questions regarding special educational needs, the Mobile Special Educational Assistance (MSH) is available in the pre-school sector and the Mobile Special Educational Services (MSD) in the school sector. The MSD teachers diagnose in the area of the respective support focus and advise teachers, legal guardians and pupils.

Current information on counseling options and helpful information from the State School Counseling Service can be found on the homepage of the Bavarian State Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs (see https://www.schulberatung.baye rn.de/).

Guidance teachers

Counselors are available as contact persons at all Bavarian schools. They advise pupils and parents/guardians, for example

  • on the choice of school career,
  • on the choice of subjects and courses within a type of school,
  • on the possibilities of changing from one type of school to another,
  • in deciding which school-leaving qualification to aim for, or
  • in preparing for a career or study choice.

They are also the people to talk to about learning, performance and behavioral difficulties.

School psychologists and school psychologists

School psychologists offer advice, help and support for pupils, parents and teachers, for example

  • in psychologically complex cases and issues relating to the school environment,
  • for learning, performance and behavioral difficulties,
  • in the promotion of age-appropriate learning and working methods,
  • for educational issues,
  • personal crises,
  • questions of inclusion and
  • questions about suitability for a particular type of school.

State school counseling centers

The nine state school counseling centers are the central counseling facilities for all schools in the respective counseling district. They are staffed by highly experienced school psychologists and guidance teachers from all types of schools who are available to answer questions and help with problems in the school context that go beyond the individual school. Their main task is

  • to provide decision-making support in difficult counseling cases,
  • to advise and mediate in questions of inclusion,
  • to provide information on the structure of the entire school system,
  • to provide information material about the different types of school,
  • to provide professional support to the guidance teachers and school psychologists at all schools and
  • advise and support head teachers and teaching staff.

A list of locations with contact details can be found on the homepage of the State School Counseling Service at https://www.schulberatung.bayern.de/staatliche-schulberatungsstellen.

Contact persons for inclusion are appointed at each state school counseling center to make it easier for parents, guardians and teachers seeking advice to contact them quickly; however, all counseling teachers and school psychologists from the various types of schools working at the state school counseling centers are competent contacts.

Particularly in difficult cases or in cases of doubt, they can be a neutral authority for those seeking advice on educational issues by making their own diagnoses (if necessary in cooperation with the MSD specialists) or by advising parents/guardians and pupils on school enrolment and school career issues on the basis of the documents already obtained. They can advise teachers, be involved in "round tables" or called in beforehand, provide moderation in conflicts between parents/guardians and the school and cooperate with specialist educational, psychological and medical services.

The state school counseling centers also provide special counseling services for teachers and school managers (e.g. supervision) as well as school administrators (coaching) and offer advanced training for teachers on pedagogical and psychological issues (e.g. bullying, crisis intervention).

In order to be able to offer schools reliable emergency psychological support and help with crisis management in crisis situations, the "Crisis Intervention and Management Team of Bavarian School Psychologists" (KIBBS), consisting of specially trained state school psychologists from all types of schools, is provided by the state. The regional coordinators responsible for managing the regional KIBBS groups in the respective counseling district are assigned to the state school counseling centers.

The regional representatives for democracy and tolerance are also linked to the state school counseling centers. They serve pupils, parents and guardians, teachers and school administrators as competent contacts for behavior-oriented prevention in the area of (right-wing) extremism. The tasks of the regional representatives include in particular

  • Conducting counseling sessions with teachers, legal guardians and affected young people.
  • Establishing and maintaining a network in the respective district, e.g. with representatives of youth welfare services, the police and associations.
  • Coordinating offers for schools in the areas of conflict resolution, violence prevention and intercultural education.
  • Participating in training courses offered by the state school counseling centers and the state teacher training program.
  • Informing schools through contributions at teachers' conferences, subject meetings, subject supervisors' conferences, head teachers' conferences or parents' evenings (in cooperation with specialist staff from the ministerial representatives and the State Institute for School Quality and Educational Research (ISB)).

Inclusion advice at the school authority (primary, secondary and special schools)

Advice for parents/guardians of children with special educational needs is of great importance. Parents and guardians should be able to obtain open-ended and well-founded information so that the right place of learning can be found for their child. This applies in particular to school enrolment, but also to any subsequent transfer from a special school to a mainstream school or vice versa. Individual cases can also be more complex, particularly with regard to any necessary support from integration assistance for inclusive education. Individual parents or guardians may also wish to receive advice at a supra-local level.

For these reasons, the Bavarian State Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs has taken up the suggestions of the Bavarian State Parliament, in particular the inter-party working group of the Education Committee, the parents, the then Disability Commissioner of the Bavarian State Government and the Association of Bavarian Districts as part of the Inclusion Round Table at the State Ministry and has promoted interdisciplinary, neutral and networked advice at primary, secondary and special school level. The aspects of interdisciplinarity and networking with integration assistance and the local authorities in the region are particularly important.

In coordination with the districts and independent cities, such advisory services have been available at 75 locations across the country since the 2015/16 school year; a list of locations with contact details can be found on the homepage of the Bavarian State Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs. This advisory service is organized on an interdisciplinary basis: In a team of usually two teachers, one comes from an elementary school or, if necessary, a secondary school and should have additional experience in counseling as a trained counseling teacher or school psychologist. The other teacher has a teaching qualification in special education and professional experience in the Mobile Special Education Service (MSD). In the case of special educational needs that are not covered by this teacher, the special educational expertise can be cooperatively integrated by the specific counseling center of the relevant special school or its MSD.

Extracurricular counseling facilities

The educational counseling centers also provide advice on problems - for example in the areas of motivation and performance as well as individual stress - and educational issues , the youth welfare offices and private and church counseling centers provide advice on other issues, the career counseling centers of the employment agencies and the academic counseling centers provide advice on career choice problems.

  • Foreign school-leaving qualification; application for recognition

    The Certificate Recognition Office at the State Office for Schools evaluates general school-leaving certificates from abroad or from another federal state if a vocational school or university in Bavaria cannot decide independently on the admission of a person.

Status: 10.04.2025
Editorially responsible for prodecure description: Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Unterricht und Kultus
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