Boost in funding for preschool programs

Minister for Early Childhood Education Leslie Williams said the additional funding aims to boost the number of young children from low-income and Aboriginal families enrolled in the top two NAPLAN bands of schools.

“The initiatives announced today will increase the number of four and five-year-old children enrolled in quality preschool programs in the year before full-time school. The focus is on increasing enrolments of children from low-income and Aboriginal families, ensuring that cost or location are not barriers to participation,” Mrs Williams said.

The funding includes:

• $13 million over four years to increase base funding rates by 2.5 per cent
• $11 million for bonus payments of up to 15 per cent of a service’s base rate, to reward centres that enrol more four and five-year-olds for 15 hours per week
• $4 million over two years to provide business advice and support to preschools
• $5.5 million over three years to improve the collection of data from services
• $12 million over four years for the Preschools for Sustainable Communities program, to help maintain viability for community preschools in rural and remote areas.

The additional program funding commences in 2016.