The policies adopted by the public authorities in the German-speaking Community to promote the education and care of young children below compulsory school age are not aimed directly via targeted measures at groups of young children considered to be "at risk," but rather at covering all young children and providing their families with the best information and at advising and assisting them in their educational tasks precisely where needed, all with the purpose of taking preventive action and paving the way for rapid intervention should a precarious or problematic situation arise. As part of this general action, the Parliament and Government of the German-speaking Community act in two different ways, depending on whether children aged 0 to 3 or children aged 3 to 6 are involved. This paper contains the following parts: (1) General approaches to early childhood education and care and definitions of the term "at risk"; (2) Access to early childhood education and care; (3) Quality of early childhood education and care; (4) Funding; (5) Transition to compulsory education; and (6) Statistics. (Contains 1 footnote.) [For the complete report, see ED539138.]