Draft policy and funding guide
Managing enrolments
Enrolment policies and procedures
Partner services must have clear and transparent preschool enrolment processes. Their application and enrolment policies must:
- promote fair, equitable access to preschool programs
- support all eligible children to access a preschool program, including those who face barriers to participation, especially for those experiencing vulnerability or disadvantage
- align with the priority of access requirements
- be advised to families when they enrol.
Priority of access
Establishing a priority of access policy during the 3-year-old preschool roll-out will support greater access for children at risk of developmental vulnerability who would benefit the most.
Services across the system must make decisions about enrolments. This becomes particularly important during the roll-out where, in the short term, there may be more demand than available supply.
Evidence suggests child or family characteristics shown in the table below increase the risk of developmental vulnerability. Children within these priority groups should therefore be prioritised for access to a service that best meets their needs. For some children and families in these priority groups, access to 3-year-old preschool will be an important protective factor.
In partner services, toddler-age children seeking to progress into the 3-year-old program will be prioritised for a place.
Note that if a Category-1 child from outside the service is seeking a place in the 3-year-old preschool program, the partner service must prioritise this child over existing families who are not experiencing vulnerability or disadvantage and seeking additional days beyond the funded 3-year-old preschool program offer.
| Priority category | Priority group |
|---|---|
| 1 |
|
| 2 |
|
Communication with families
Partner services must provide information and resources to families about the funded preschool programs offered at their service. This must include details about eligibility and age requirements to access a funded place. The service must support parents to ensure children to participate and attend.
Declaration and consent
The partner service must collect a completed declaration and consent form for all children enrolled in the preschool program.
This form will be provided by mid-2025 and will ask the parent or guardian:
- to declare whether the child is enrolled in a funded preschool program at another partner service, and if so, to advise of preschool-service-type eligibility requirements
- to consent to the child’s information being provided to the OECD for the purposes outlined in the declaration and consent form.
Partner services must retain the form and provide it to the OECD if requested for the purposes of reporting or funding compliance reviews.
Funding cannot be claimed where consent has not been obtained through a completed declaration and consent form.
Children enrolled at multiple services
3-year-old preschool
Partner services must inform parents/carers/legal guardians that their child can only access a funded preschool program at one service at any given time.
If a child is enrolled in 2 partner services, the service-type eligibility will be considered and applied. Where the child has the option to attend any setting (because they are not already enrolled in a partner service), the parent/carer/legal guardian must nominate which partner service will receive the funding for the child.
Example:
- Families with a child attending a long day care that offers a funded preschool program (a partner service) will not be able to also access funded sessional government/non-government preschool.
- If a child is enrolled in more than one long day care partner service (such as shared care arrangements), only one of those services can receive 3-year-old preschool funding. This is based on the parents’ decision or, in its absence, the first service to enrol the child in any capacity.
Partner services are responsible for ensuring reasonable steps are taken to minimise claiming for children who may be enrolled in more than one funded preschool program. This includes clearly communicating to parents verbally and in writing about eligibility rules for 3-year-old preschool and how they differ from 4-year-old preschool. The OECD will provide speaking points, FAQs and a flyer to support services to do this.
A new enrolment form will also give details and a checklist of preschool service-type eligibility, to minimise duplications.
To support smooth implementation, services must provide available enrolment data well in advance of the start of the semester, to identify data matches and allow time for other enrolments to be confirmed. If there is a duplication, we will apply the service-type eligibility policy to determine where funding will be allocated.
The OECD will undertake ongoing duplication checks. If a duplicate is identified during the semester, and the child is enrolled in both a partner long day care and sessional preschool service, funding for that enrolment will cease to the sessional preschool service.
Children who are not eligible
If a partner service makes a claim for a child who is not eligible, or where there has been a duplicate enrolment, the OECD is entitled to recover the funds and take appropriate action under the funding agreement.
Immunisation
Under the South Australian Public Health Act 2011, children cannot enrol in or attend early childhood services unless all immunisation requirements are met (No Jab, No Play).
This legislation aims to reduce the risk of vaccine-preventable diseases through increased immunisation rates in the community. Under the legislation, before enrolling a child, early childhood education and care services must first obtain evidence that the child is up to date with all vaccinations due for their age, or that they are able to receive.
Please refer to the SA Health website for more information: Early childhood services and immunisation requirements | SA Health.