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    South Australia's Preschool Infrastructure Strategy

    About this strategy

    We have set an ambitious 20-year goal to guide our reforms: to reduce the rate of South Australian children entering school developmentally vulnerable from the current 23.8% to 15%. We know that children who engage in quality early childhood education have better outcomes in the long term, and that all children benefit from participating in 2 years of preschool. This is why we have committed to implementing 3-year-old preschool across South Australia from 2026 to 2032.

    New, quality early childhood infrastructure will be critical to achieving this goal.

    This strategy sets out the approach for targeting the South Australian government’s investment and support for early childhood infrastructure in the most effective ways possible to enable universal access to 3-year-old preschool by 2032.

    The actions set out have been tested with our sector partners. They will be reviewed and adapted as needed to ensure that — as far as is predictable — infrastructure supply matches demand as more children participate in 3-year-old preschool.

    The plan to implement 3-year-old preschool

    From 2026, the South Australian government will partner with long day care providers across the state who meet quality and workforce requirements to deliver 3-year-old preschool to children enrolled at their services.
    The roll-out in government and other sessional preschools will be geographic, starting with:

    • rural areas in 2026 and 2027
    • large regional centres in 2028
    • metropolitan areas in 2029 and 2030.

    Growth across the whole sector is needed so, by 2032, all children can access 2 years of preschool.

    To facilitate the delivery of the required infrastructure supply, this strategy sets out a range of actions, with more support targeted to the parts of the sector that have not experienced growth in recent years.

    We are planning for the whole sector and investing in infrastructure projects delivered by not-for-profit providers, non-government schools and local councils, and in government preschools.