Documentation and supervision duties in school-age childcare
Anyone who cares for school-age children – school authority, after-school provider or school leadership – is responsible for every child present. That responsibility demands two things: knowing at all times who is there, and documenting it in a traceable way. Here's why that isn't optional.
Note. This article is for guidance only and is not legal advice. The school laws and care regulations of your federal state are authoritative.
Duty of supervision: you must know who is there
During care hours the duty of supervision applies: the school authority and school leadership must ensure every child is supervised. That requires knowing at all times which pupils are present, who has already left and who is still expected. A tally sheet from this morning does not meet this duty – the status has to be correct in real time.
Documentation duty: attendance must be provable
Attendance must not only be known but documented in a traceable way. Such records are required in several places: to settle all-day / after-school funding with the state and municipality, towards the accident insurer, and in any dispute or liability case. Incomplete or retroactively kept lists are a risk here.
Statutory accident insurance: in a claim, the proof counts
Pupils are covered by statutory accident insurance (Unfallkasse / DGUV) during school care. If an accident happens, it must be proven that the child was in care at that moment. Without attendance documented to the second, this cover is hard to claim.
Liability & emergencies: documentation protects you
In an incident – accident, missing child, evacuation – the authority and leadership are liable for proper supervision. A current, complete attendance list is decisive in an emergency (headcount check) and relieves those responsible afterwards. Documentation here is not red tape for its own sake, but protection.
Data protection: handle attendance data correctly
Attendance data is personal data. Under the GDPR it must be processed for a defined purpose, with data minimisation and securely – ideally on servers in Germany and with clearly governed access. A digital solution meets this more easily and in a more audit-proof way than paper lists.
Know who's there – and document it without gaps.
Bienenstock does both automatically via QR check-in: real-time attendance and audit-proof records at the push of a button.
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