Quality Early Education for All

services’ obligation to waive fees for these children) 23 . The Victorian government also provides Kindergarten
Inclusion Support Packages (KIS) which provides additional funding to preschools to build their capacity to meet
the needs of enrolled children with a disability, complex medical needs or other high support needs and to
support inclusive practice. This additional funding for higher needs and to compensate for fee waivers (see
footnote 22) does not necessarily fully cover all costs. Preschools set their own fees and enrolment priorities,
although all must waive fees for certain children from marginalised backgrounds, and are also encouraged to
prioritise the enrolment applications (where demand exceeds supply) of children from these and other
marginalised groups (Department of Education and Training, Victoria 2015).
Nearly half of all Australian children attend preschool through a long daycare service. The amount of funding that
states and territory governments provide for preschool in long daycare services varies by jurisdiction, and is less
than the provision for standalone preschools.
Childcare, including long daycare, funding is provided to parents by the Commonwealth as a rebate on fees paid –
rather than a fixed funding cost for service provision as in preschool or schools. Thus at present parents who
send their children to a more costly service, mostly located in inner suburbs and growth areas of major cities,
receive more government funding (while also incurring greater out-of-pocket) expenses. The Australian
Government’s proposed Jobs for Families legislation addresses this inequity somewhat by funding on a
benchmark cost of delivery.
This proposed legislation and accompanying proposed funding package places more stringent activity tests for
families to receive childcare subsidies, and could see the cost of preschool through long daycare settings increase
for non-working parents. Families would be reliant on sufficient places being available in stand-alone preschools
to access lower cost preschool.
Fees
Fees for preschool vary across the country, from free to several dollars per hour of attendance (amounting to
several thousand dollars per year). At a national level most state government delivered preschool programs are
free, although this is not the case in New South Wales, Victoria or Queensland (ABS, 2015).
The calculation of fees for preschool is likely to underestimate the true cost to families. In some states, such as
New South Wales and Queensland, preschool attendance is mainly through long daycare. The National Early
Childhood and Care collection includes estimates that parents of children in long daycare only pay for 15 hours of
preschool.
Each long daycare service can choose how they provide preschool – it may be for a whole day or only certain
hours (such as 9:00 till 2:00 three or four days a week). Services also set their own fees. Families are usually levied
fees for the entire day (around 12 hours), regardless of how many hours their child attends. In these
circumstances children need to attend several days of long daycare, and families pay for 24 hours of care or more,
to receive 15 hours of preschool. Costs of childcare vary tremendously, from under $80 per day in some family
daycare services (which do not provide preschool programs) to nearly $200 per day for centre-based services in
high-demand locales. In some long daycare centres, a lower fee is charged if children only attend for the
“preschool program” hours instead of the full day.
The Commonwealth Government rebates reimburse parents a portion of the cost of childcare relative to their
income.
23 Fee waivers – and Victorian government supplementary funding to approved providers to compensate – apply to children
that identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander; children holding (or whose parent or guardian holds) a Commonwealth
Health Care Card, concessions card, Veterans’ Affairs Gold Card, Refugee Visa, a variety of other humanitarian, protection
and emergency rescue visas, children with mothers’ at risk and triplets. Each preschool or childcare centre sets their own fee
policies and make additional fee reductions, waivers or payment plans.
Quality Early Education for All 51