Inclusion
Parents can choose between special needs schools and inclusive schools. The special education schools have been further developed into support and advisory centers and concentrate special expertise in their area of responsibility.
Children with disabilities, but without identified special educational needs visit the local school. This concerns for example children with physical disabilities, including the visually impaired or hearing impaired, but also children and adolescents with disorders from the autism spectrum (https://inklusion.bildung-rp.de/inklusion.html).
Primary school
The primary school covers grades 1 to 4, provides a basic education. Children attend primary school usually at the age of 6 - 10 years.
https://bm.rlp.de/de/bildung/schule/bildungswege/grundschule/
After primary school, there are three secondary school types:
Realschule Plus
Realschule Plus comprises the grades 5 to 10. It provides their pupils with an extended general education and a general vocational orientation. In order to facilitate the permeability between the types of school, in the orientation level in class 5 and 6, lessons are given according to the same curriculum as at the Gymnasium. Pupils with good grades can switch to a high school after the orientation class on the recommendation of the class conference. The Realschule Plus is organized cooperatively or integrative.
The following qualifications can be obtained: Vocational maturity (graduation from lower secondary level) after grade 9 and the qualified graduation from lower secondary level (middle maturity) after grade 10. Pupils with good achievements can switch to the upper secondary school.
https://bm.rlp.de/de/bildung/schule/bildungswege/realschule-plus/
Integrated Comprehensive School
In the Integrated Comprehensive School children of different backgrounds, talents and inclinations learn together until the 9th or 10th grade. Integrated comprehensive school includes grades 5 to 10 in lower secondary and grades 11 to 13 in upper secondary level. All lower secondary and upper secondary degrees may be obtained at the Comprehensive School: Vocational maturity (graduation from lower secondary level) after grade 9, the qualified graduation from lower secondary level (middle maturity) after grade 10 and the general higher education entrance qualification (Abitur) after class 13 (https://bm.rlp.de/de/bildung/schule/bildungswege/integrierte-gesamtschule/).
Gymnasium
Gymnasium provides pupils with a broad and in-depth general education, which usually leads to general university entrance qualification (Abitur). The grammar schools in Rheinland-Pfalz include grades 5 to 12 (G8) or 5 to 13 (G9). Abitur after eight years (G8) can only be taken at grammar schools who have applied for it. G8 is associated with a compulsory all-day school. A change between G9 and G8 is still possible. Abitur after class 13 (G9) is usual. At Gymnasium, all lower secondary and upper secondary qualifications can be obtained: Vocational maturity (graduation from lower secondary level) after grade 9, the qualified graduation from lower secondary level (middle maturity) after grade 10 and the general higher education entrance qualification (Abitur) after class 12 or 13 (https://bm.rlp.de/de/bildung/schule/bildungswege/gymnasium/).
Special Schools
Pupils with identified special educational needs can be taught at special schools, if their parents so wish. Special needs schools regularly check, if pupils can change to a regular school and if the special educational needs can be lifted. There are schools for the following special educational needs: seeing, hearing, physical and motor development, mental development, language, learning as well as emotional and social development (https://bm.rlp.de/de/bildung/schule/bildungswege/foerderschulen/.
Full-time care in schools
There are all-day schools in all school types. (https://bm.rlp.de/de/bildung/schule/ganztagsschule/).
In addition to state schools in Rheinland-Pfalz, there are also private schools: https://www.bildung.de/schule/privatschulen/rheinland-pfalz/#suche