An observation study of the implementation and quality of a policy-based early childhood education program for newly arrived refugee children in Germany

Abstract Early childhood education [ECE] can support the development and adjustment of refugee children - though the large numbers of newly arriving refugee families challenge ECE capacities of hosting countries. In Germany, a specialized ECE policy funds programs for refugee families at scale. As that policy provides only few regulations, implementation and ECE quality at program-level remain unknown. In formative research, we categorized programs and assembled ECE quality measures. We then examined ECE quality in standardized observation procedures. The policy-based programs were differently implemented in mobile concepts/ temporary set-ups, improvised settings or in formal settings for education. For ECE quality, we found that structural quality depended on implementation settings while process quality, as referring to social-emotional support, was consistently high. Our research process yielded a dearth of tools to comparatively assess ECE quality among heterogenous programs at population- and program-levels with respect to the needs of specific target groups. Flexible programs with limited regulations, allowing locally adapted implementation strategies, are likely an innovative approach to support refugee children’s development after migration.