State supervision of schools

The school authority for the Oberbergischer Kreis is responsible for

• primary schools,

• secondary schools, and

• special needs schools

and performs duties of service and professional supervision. Both the educational matters and the authority for decisions regarding service-related issues (§86 Abs. 2 SchulG NRW) lie with the school supervisory authorities. In the area of secondary and special needs schools, the decision-making authority for service-related issues lies with the Cologne District Government, while professional supervision for primary and special needs schools is managed by the school supervision within the school authority.

In the State School Authority, professional supervision for primary, secondary, and special needs schools encompasses the lawful and appropriate execution of tasks undertaken by the schools (§13 Abs. 1 LOG), both in the area of so-called internal school matters, i.e., primarily the direct educational and instructional work of the school, and external school matters, i.e., the establishment, organization, administrative management, and maintenance.

For primary schools, the State School Authority also has additional duties of service supervision concerning the structure, internal organization, general management, and personnel matters of the authority (§12 Abs. 1 LOG).

Other legal matters, especially administrative and budgetary issues, are the responsibility of the administrative professional members (§91 Abs. 3 SchulG NRW).

The higher school supervision and other responsibilities lie with the Cologne District Government.