Dienstleistungsportal Bayern

Your child's teachers are the first point of contact for questions concerning education and upbringing. In addition, the State School Counseling Service in Bavaria is available to you through guidance counselors, school psychologists at your child's school and at the State School Counseling Centers.

The State School Counseling Service helps to recognize a student's aptitudes, to make use of his or her abilities, and to take advantage of the many educational opportunities available. 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 students. The State School Counseling Service is open to students of all school types. It is neutral, confidential, solution-oriented and free of charge for those seeking advice.

In Bavaria, the advisory bodies at schools 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 administrative district.

For questions regarding special educational needs, the Mobile Special Educational Services (MSH) are available in the preschool area and the Mobile Special Educational Services (MSD) in the school area. The MSD teachers diagnose in the area of the respective special focus and advise teachers, guardians and students.

You can find current information about counseling opportunities and helpful information from the State School Counseling Service on the homepage of the Bavarian State Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs (see "Further Information").

Counseling teachers

Advisory teachers are available as contact persons at all Bavarian schools. They advise students and parents, for example

• on the choice of school career,
• on the choice of subjects and educational directions within a type of school,
• on the possibilities of changing from one type of education to another within a school type,
• in deciding which school-leaving certificate to aim for, or
• in preparing for the choice of a profession or course of study.

They are also the point of contact for learning, performance and behavioral difficulties.

School psychologists

School psychologists offer counseling, help and support for students, parents and teachers

• in psychologically complex cases and questions concerning the school environment,
• in the question of aptitude for a particular type of school,
• in case of learning, performance and behavioral difficulties,
• in the promotion of age-appropriate learning and working methods,
• with educational questions,
• personal crises, and
• in questions of inclusion.

State school counseling centers

The nine state school counseling centers are the central counseling facilities for all schools in the administrative district. They are staffed by highly experienced school psychologists and guidance counselors from all types of schools, who are available to answer questions and deal 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 about the structure of the entire school system,
• to provide information material about the different types of schools,
• to provide professional support for the guidance counselors and school psychologists at all schools, and
• to advise and support school administrators and teachers.

A list of locations with contact details is available on the homepage of the Bavarian State Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs (see "Further Information").

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

Especially in difficult cases or in cases of doubt, they can be a neutral authority for those seeking advice on pedagogical questions by diagnosing themselves (if necessary, in cooperation with the specialists of the MSD) or by advising the parents and pupils on questions of school enrollment and school career on the basis of the documents already obtained. They can advise teachers, be called in to "round tables" or be involved in advance, provide moderation in conflicts between guardians and school, and cooperate with pedagogical, psychological and medical services.

The state school counseling centers also offer special counseling services for teachers and school managers (e.g. supervision) as well as school administrators (coaching) and conduct in-service 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 administrative district are assigned to the State School Counseling Offices.

The Regional Representatives for Democracy and Tolerance are also linked to the State School Counseling Centers. They serve as competent contacts for students, guardians, teachers and school administrators for behavior-oriented prevention in the area of (right-wing) extremism. The tasks of the regional officers include in detail:

• Conducting counseling sessions with teachers, parents or affected young people.
• Establishing and maintaining a network in the respective district, e.g. with representatives of youth welfare, the police and associations.
• Coordination of offers for schools in the field of conflict management, violence prevention and intercultural pedagogy.
• Participation in training programs offered by the state school counseling centers and the state teacher training program.
• Informing schools through contributions in the context of teacher conferences, subject meetings, subject supervisor conferences, principal conferences or parents' evenings (in cooperation with specialist staff of the ministerial commissioners and the State Institute for School Quality and Educational Research (ISB)).

Inclusion counseling at the school office (area of elementary, middle and special schools)

The consultation of parents of children with special educational needs is of high importance. The parents should be able to inform themselves in an open-ended and well-founded manner so that the appropriate place of learning can be found for the child. This applies in particular to school enrollment, but also to a possible later transfer from the special school to the regular school or vice versa. Individual cases can also be more complex, especially with regard to any support that may be required from the integration aid in the case of inclusive education. Individual parents 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-factional working group of the Education Committee, the parents, the then Disability Commissioner of the Bavarian State Government and the Association of Bavarian Districts within the framework of the Round Table on Inclusion at the State Ministry and has advanced interdisciplinary, neutral and networked consultation at the level of elementary, middle and special schools. Of particular importance are the aspects of interdisciplinarity and networking with the integration assistance and the local authorities in the region.

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

Extracurricular counseling institutions

In addition, the educational counseling centers 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 as well as private and church counseling centers provide advice on other issues, and the career counseling centers of the employment agencies and the academic counseling centers provide advice on problems of career choice.