Preschool funding agreement

Preschool funding agreement

The Commonwealth and Western Australian governments have signed a preschool funding agreement that will benefit more than 130,000 Western Australian children in the year before full-time school from 2022 to 2025.

The Preschool Reform Agreement confirms up to $190 million of Commonwealth funding for Kindergarten in Western Australia.

The agreement:

  • supports children to attend 15 hours of Kindergarten each week in the year before full-time school
  • ensures all children benefit from Commonwealth funding regardless of the setting they attend
  • aims to improve Kindergarten enrolment and attendance
  • maximises the benefit of Kindergarten by improving outcomes for children.

For more information refer to the Minister’s announcement.

As part of the Preschool Reform Agreement, the Australian Government is introducing a Preschool Outcomes Measure tool. 

The tool will be developed and validated in 2024 and trialled nationally in 2025. 

Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), in partnership with Goodstart Early Learning and Ninti One, has been selected by the Australian Government to lead the development of the Preschool Outcomes Measure. 

Ninti One will ensure Indigenous perspectives are included throughout the development and validation process of the tool. This process will ensure the final products that are trialled in 2025 are inclusive and work well for all children.

The tool will provide teachers with information they can use to inform children’s learning. The tool is expected to align with approved learning frameworks such as the Early Years Learning Framework V2.0, 2022, or state-approved equivalents.

Use of the tool will be optional.

We are working with the Australian Government to ensure the tool will suit Western Australian schools. The trial in 2025 will give us a chance to look at how well the tool supports students, teachers and reduces workload.

We will provide updates once further details about the tool and the trial emerge.

For more information about the preschool outcome measure, refer to the Australian Government Website. 

From 2023, the Commonwealth Preschool Reform Agreement funding is provided to all sectors delivering preschool (Kindergarten) programs. In Western Australia, this included the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) sector for the first time. We distribute the funding to government and non-government schools. 

In the 2023 calendar year, funding included $40.9 million to the schooling sector, including:

  • public schools
  • community Kindergartens
  • Catholic schools
  • Independent schools

There was also $1.15 million supplied to the ECEC sector. $5.6 million has also contributed to programs that support preschool quality, equity, participation and for preparation programs.

The funding to the ECEC sector is distributed by Child Australia via a grants program.  For more information refer to ECEC WA Grant Program - Child Australia.

A total of 16 organisations received funding through the Supporting Children in ECEC Grant Program in 2023, benefitting 5,732 children.  

Further information about funding in 2024 will be shared as it becomes available. For more information, refer to the Preschool Reform Agreement on the Federal Financial Relations website.