Federal Child and Youth Welfare Act

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Federal Child and Youth Welfare Act (B-KJHG) - official long title: Federal law on the principles of assistance for families and educational assistance for children and young people is a federal law passed by the National Council in 2013 to promote the development of children and young people.

The Federal Child and Youth Welfare Act 2013

From 1989 onwards, the Youth Welfare Act (JWG), amended in 2007, was decisive. Both the old JWG and the B-KJHG 2013 were enacted in multiple versions by the Austrian federal states as state laws. They were called e.g. B. Styrian State Youth Welfare Act (StJWG) or since 2013, for example, called Vienna Child and Youth Welfare Act (WKJHG). At that time, Article 12 of the Federal Constitution was still valid, which provided for the federal government to have basic competence and, based on this, for the federal states to implement legislation.

Shift of competence to the federal states

In the course of the Austrian federal reform, a repeal of Art. 12 Para. 1 B-VG (Federal Constitutional Law) was resolved in the National Council. With this amendment to the federal constitution, the competence of the federal government for basic legislation in the field of child and youth welfare was eliminated. From 2020, both the legislative competence and the enforcement will therefore fall to the federal states alone. For this reason, the federal law has also been partially repealed or amended. The so-called “change” of these competencies has been reported in the media.

Agreement according to Art. 15a B-VG on child and youth welfare

With an Art. 15a agreement concluded between the federal government and all federal states, the federal states undertake to continue to implement the instruments, services and minimum standards defined in Part 1 of the Federal Child and Youth Welfare Act 2013 within the framework of their legislation and enforcement. In return, the federal government undertakes to regulate the previously directly applicable federal provisions from the B-KJHG 2013 as well as to some other agendas.

In Article 1 of this agreement, therefore, the objective is to ensure that child and youth welfare services in Austria should be organized in a uniform manner, despite the country's competence. Article 2 standardizes the previous sections 1 to 7 and sections 9 to 36 B-KJHG 2013 as part of the agreement. Article 3 deals with the (remaining) tasks of the federal government, in particular Sections 37 to 44 of the B-KJHG 2013. Article 4 is devoted to the further development of standards in child and youth welfare. Articles 5, 6 and 7 relate to the entry into force, duration and filing of the agreement.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Federal Law Gazette I No. 69/2013
  2. ↑ Massive criticism of the "change" in child and youth welfare. Der Standard, June 21, 2018, accessed February 2, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b BGBl. I No. 106/2019