Finding a Kindergarten in Belgrade for German Families: Options, Costs, Timeline

For families with small children, it is often not the apartment but the kindergarten place that decides whether the move to Belgrade goes smoothly in the first year. Places at a German-language institution are limited, a state kindergarten requires registration routes designed for Serbian families, and private institutions differ widely in language, approach and price.

This article shows how to find a kindergarten in Belgrade for your family: which German-language and international options exist, how the state kindergarten (vrtić) works, what the places cost and when you should start registering. The other steps of the move are covered in our checklist for moving to Belgrade (in German).

Three Routes to a Kindergarten Place in Belgrade

For German-speaking families, there are essentially three kinds of institutions. They differ less in the quality of care than in language, access and cost.

The Kindergarten of the German School Belgrade

The German School Belgrade (Deutsche Schule Belgrad, DSB) is run by the Deutscher Schulverein and operates its own kindergarten with a preschool alongside the primary school and the Gymnasium. The kindergarten is at Sanje Živanovića 15, the school at Petra Čajkovskog 4. According to the school's website, the kindergarten takes children from about three to five years old. The preschool covers the last year before school entry, for children aged five to six, and is designed as a full-day programme.

The kindergarten works on a partly open concept: every child belongs to a core group but may use all rooms during free play. The preschool offers structured language preparation classes for children whose mother tongue is not German. For German families, the main advantage is continuity: a child who attends the preschool here moves up to the first grade of the same school, without the family having to start a new registration process from scratch.

Admission Rules You Should Know

The DSB registration page lists a few conditions that directly affect your planning:

• Toilet-trained: For the kindergarten, it is a basic requirement that the child no longer needs nappies.
• Cut-off date for preschool: Children who turn five by 31 July of the year are admitted to the preschool.
• Cut-off date for primary school: Children who turn six by 31 July of the year start in the first grade.
• German mother tongue: Children with German as their mother tongue are admitted directly to the preschool. Other children must first have spent at least one year in the kindergarten.
• School readiness test: For the first grade, there is a school readiness test around March or April.

For bi-national families, this means: if mostly Serbian is spoken at home, the child should enter the kindergarten in good time so that the path through the preschool to primary school stays open. If German is the mother tongue, a later entry directly into the preschool is possible.

Registration Step by Step

1. Contact the kindergarten, preferably by phone or through the school's contact form, and ask for a visit appointment.
2. Fill in the interest form with details about the child. It is available as a PDF on the website.
3. For the kindergarten, submit the registration form and proof of age.
4. After the confirmation of admission, hand in the birth certificate and, for school-age children, previous school reports.
5. Pay the registration fee, which makes the registration binding.

The school does not state a fixed registration deadline for the kindergarten, and its website gives no information on waiting lists. At the first contact, ask specifically how many places are still free for your preferred year.

What the German-Language Kindergarten Costs

The DSB fee schedule for the 2026/27 school year is public and states clear amounts. The kindergarten fee is 6,400 euros per year, the tuition for the preschool 7,100 euros. On top of that comes a one-off, non-refundable registration fee of 200 euros per child for kindergarten or preschool. When the child later moves up to primary school, you only pay the difference of 200 euros.

Not included are lunch, which the catering company bills directly, the optional care in July and August, and trips and extracurricular events. The fees cover ten months. If you join during the current year, you pay one tenth of the annual amount per month, and a month that has begun is charged in full.

Payment is made in dinars at the middle exchange rate of the National Bank of Serbia on the day of payment. For transfers from abroad in euros, the school refers you to its administration. There are two payment models: three instalments due on 15 September, 1 November and 15 January or, on request and with the approval of the school administration, ten monthly instalments, in which case the annual fee increases by 100 euros.

Worked Example for a Family with Two Children

Parents who demonstrably bear the school costs themselves receive a 10 percent reduction for the second child and 20 percent from the third child on, on written request. Suppose your older daughter starts the preschool in 2026/27 and your younger son the kindergarten, both from September:

If you pay in ten instalments, 100 euros per child are added. Many expatriate families negotiate the school costs with their employer. In that case, according to the wording of the fee schedule, the sibling reduction does not apply, because it is tied to bearing the costs yourself.

Other Kindergartens in Belgrade with German or English

Besides the DSB, there are a few private institutions that may be interesting for German-speaking families. The directory deutscherkindergarten.org lists the international kindergarten Vrapčići ("Sparrows") at Kornelija Stankovića 19 for Belgrade. According to that entry, it has a German group looked after by native speakers, as well as English and optionally other languages. According to the directory, the institution accepts new registrations year-round. Because this is an entry in a private directory, you should check during a visit whether the German group really exists in your desired year and how old the children in it are.

For families who do not stay in Belgrade permanently, or whose children are later meant to move to an English-language school, an international programme is an alternative. The International School of Belgrade (ISB) states that it offers an Early Years programme (PreK and kindergarten) for children aged three to five, as part of the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme. In addition, there are numerous private Serbian kindergartens with an English focus.

What to Look for in Private Kindergartens

• Is the institution officially licensed? Ask about verification by the Ministry of Education (rešenje o verifikaciji).
• Is the group looked after by a native-speaking educator, or are there only individual language lessons?
• What does the place cost in total, including meals, trips and additional courses, and is the fee still charged during illness? According to press reports from 2023, parents of private kindergartens in Belgrade sometimes also pay for excused absences.

State Kindergarten: Registration via eUprava

The municipal kindergartens in Belgrade are grouped into preschool institutions (predškolska ustanova), usually one per city district. The language of care is Serbian. For some years now, registration has run exclusively online through the eVrtić service on the state portal eUprava, within fixed application windows (konkurs), which in Belgrade have mostly fallen in spring in recent years. For this you need a registered electronic identity. For Serbian families, the system pulls birth, residence and insurance data automatically from the registers, and parents do not have to submit any documents.

For foreign families, this is the bottleneck. According to reports on the introduction of the service, eVrtić is aimed primarily at parents with Serbian citizenship, and individual institutions also offer it when one parent is a foreigner. An earlier announcement by the responsible minister also mentioned foreign nationals with temporary or permanent residence. In practice, this means: without a residence permit and without registering your address, you will hardly get a state place. How you obtain both is described in our articles on the residence permit in Serbia and on registering your address. Ask the responsible preschool institution in your district which documents it requires from foreign parents.

On costs: according to the Mayor of Belgrade in August 2023, state kindergartens in Belgrade have been free of charge for parents since September 2023, and for private kindergartens the city pays a subsidy based on the price of a state place. According to press reports, this subsidy usually does not cover the fees of private institutions completely. Whether and under what conditions this applies to foreign families should be confirmed with the institution before you plan.

One point is often overlooked in planning: places are scarce. According to data from the Statistical Office for the year 2021/22, 5,736 children in Serbia were left without a place because capacity was full, 505 of them in Belgrade. For nursery children under three years, the situation is particularly tight.

The Compulsory Preschool Year

In Serbia, a preparatory programme (pripremni predškolski program) is compulsory in the year before school entry. If you move to Belgrade with a five- or six-year-old child and later want to register the child at a Serbian school, you should clarify where this programme is completed. At the DSB preschool, which explicitly prepares for its own first grade, the question is different. If in doubt, have the school confirm which route applies to your child.

Bilingualism: Keeping German, Gaining Serbian

Many families face the question of whether the child should consolidate German in Belgrade or learn Serbian. The two do not exclude each other, but the choice of kindergarten sets the emphasis. A German-language kindergarten secures the connection to a later return to the German-speaking world. A Serbian kindergarten makes integration into the neighbourhood and the playground easier.

A clear pattern has proved its worth: the family language stays German, and Serbian comes in through neighbourhood children, sport or an afternoon course. In bi-national families, many parents each speak their own mother tongue with the child. What matters is consistency. If the child is later meant to attend a German school, German as a purely family language is often not enough; the DSB admission rules for children without a German mother tongue show how important an early start is.

Finding a Kindergarten in Belgrade: the Right Timeline

The location of the kindergarten should help shape the apartment search. In Belgrade, a distance of a few kilometres can take much longer than expected in rush-hour traffic. For a general overview of the districts, see our article on Belgrade neighbourhoods (in German).

Documents for the Kindergarten

• Passport of the child and of the parents
• International birth certificate or birth certificate with apostille, for Serbian authorities with a translation by a court-certified translator (sudski tumač)
• Vaccination record, ideally with an English translation
• Medical certificate, if the institution requires it
• For state institutions: proof of residence and address registration

How Exgentum Helps

Exgentum does not broker kindergarten places and does not decide on admissions, which rests solely with the institutions. As part of our relocation support (in German), we help German-speaking families with the organisation: we coordinate visit appointments during your exploratory trip, accompany you to meetings with Serbian-speaking institutions, coordinate translations and keep the apartment search in view so that kindergarten and apartment fit together. Your contact speaks German or English.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a German kindergarten in Belgrade?

Yes. The German School Belgrade runs a kindergarten for children from about three to five years old and a preschool for the last year before school entry. In addition, an online directory lists a private kindergarten with a German group.

What does the kindergarten of the German School Belgrade cost?

According to the 2026/27 school fee schedule, the kindergarten fee is 6,400 euros per year, and the preschool costs 7,100 euros. On top of that come 200 euros registration fee as well as lunch and optional summer care.

Does my child have to speak German to be admitted?

For the kindergarten, the school states no language requirement. However, children without a German mother tongue must have spent at least one year in the kindergarten before they can move to the preschool.

Can I register my child at a state kindergarten as a foreigner?

In principle yes, but registration runs electronically via eUprava and is designed around Serbian registers. With a residence permit and address registration, you have the best chances. Clarify the documents directly with the institution in your district.

When should I start the search?

Ideally nine to twelve months before the move. State places are allocated within fixed deadlines, and German-language places are limited as well.

Conclusion

Finding the right kindergarten in Belgrade for a German family is above all a question of timing. If you want to rely on German in the long term, you should contact the kindergarten of the German School Belgrade early, observe the admission rules for the preschool and plan with around 6,400 euros per year and child. If you want to foster Serbian or reduce costs, you first need a residence permit and address registration for a state place and must keep to the application windows in spring. Start the search nine to twelve months before the move, visit the institutions on an exploratory trip and choose the apartment only once the kindergarten is settled.