Delivering a preschool program for children in the year before school for 2025

Non-government preschool service providers can apply for funding for 2025 to support the cost of delivering a preschool program for children in the year before fulltime school. Funding is provided by the Australian Government under the Preschool Reform Agreement (PRA), which is administered in South Australia by the Department for Education.

About the Preschool Reform Agreement

The 4-year Preschool Reform Agreement (PRA) replaced the National Partnership on Universal Access to Early Childhood Education – 2018 to 2021 (UANP).

From 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2025, the PRA will provide funding to the South Australian government to support the delivery of 15 hours per week, or 600 hours a year of a quality preschool program by a degree-qualified early childhood teacher to all South Australian children, regardless of the setting in which programs are delivered in the year before school.

The objective of the PRA is to facilitate children’s early learning and development and transition to school by:

• maintaining universal access to affordable, quality preschool program for all children
• improving participation in preschool programs
• maximising the benefit of the preschool year by improving outcomes for children.

The PRA has a focus on improving preschool participation and outcomes including for:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children; and
• disadvantaged children.

Eligibility for funding

To be eligible for funding for the provision of preschool programs, the applicant must:

• be an approved provider registered with the Australian Children’s Education & Care Quality Authority (ACECQA)
• hold an ACECQA service approval for the preschool service provider
• have an Australian business number (ABN) where the entity name matches the approved provider name on the ACECQA register
• be registered for Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Category ranking and remote area eligibility

For an indication of the applicable category ranking and remoteness eligibility see remote or very remote areas.

Conditions of funding

Applicants who meet the funding eligibility criteria will need to comply with the conditions set out in the funding agreement. View a sample funding agreement (PDF 348 KB) .

In order to receive grant funding, preschool service providers will be required to:

• ensure at all times, the preschool program is delivered by a degree qualified early childhood teacher registered with the Teacher’s Registration Board of South Australia that at a minimum, meets National Quality Framework qualification requirements
• conduct and deliver 15 hours of affordable, quality preschool programs per week for 40 weeks of the year (or 600 hours annually) that is accessible and offered to all eligible children in the year before school, including for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and disadvantaged children.

Funding subsidies available

Funding subsidies for the program are detailed in attachment 4 of the sample funding agreement (PDF 348 KB) .

Base per capita subsidy

The base per capita subsidy is paid for every eligible preschool child in their year before school that contributes to the cost of employing a degree qualified early childhood teacher to deliver the preschool program and other associated costs of the program.

The base per capita subsidy amount is determined by the category ranking of the service provider.

Other targeted or specific purpose subsidies that are dependent on certain criteria are listed below.

Targeted child subsidy

Service providers are eligible to receive a subsidy for Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander children or children of families holding one of the following:

• health care card
• pensioner concession card
• refugee and humanitarian program visas
• Department of Veteran Affairs (DVA) gold card.

The targeted child subsidy must be expended to the exclusive benefit of the specific child attracting the subsidy, such as through a reduction in fees for the family.

Children with a recognised disability subsidy

A subsidy is available to service providers with enrolments of children entitled to a health care card with a CD (child disability) to provide access to and regular participation in the preschool program.

Remote area subsidy

A subsidy paid to service providers located in remote or very remove areas of South Australia to contribute to the additional staffing costs for recruitment and retention of early childhood teachers (view remote or very remote areas).

Funding claim and payments

Funding for the non-government preschool providers program is paid 6-monthly and based on preschool enrolment data submitted to the Non- Government Preschool Data System (NGPDS) for children in the year before school. Payments are made via electronic funds transfer.

Preschool data collected from service providers each school term will be used for calculating grant payments as follows:

• Payments for the first 6 months of the year will be made by 30 April based on enrolment data collected in term 1, with any adjustments as required from the term 4 collection of the previous year.
• Payments for the second half of the year will be made by 30 September based on enrolment data collected in term 3, with any adjustments as required from the term 2 collection.

For guidance on the data collection requirements, refer to the term data submission instructions (PDF 1 MB) for non-government preschools.

Commencement of funding

Find guidance regarding the timelines from completion of your application to the commencement of funding in the table below.

Parent disclaimer

Children are eligible to access 15 hours of government-funded preschool per week. Preschool providers, both government and non-government, must make sure that they don't make a funding claim for over 15 hours of government-funded preschool per week.

To help this process, service providers must have a signed disclaimer from a parent or guardian confirming that the child is not enrolled in more than 15 hours – see parent disclaimer and privacy statement information sheet (PDF 195 KB) .

Privacy statement

Service providers must provide the department with the following information about enrolled children for funding assessment and reporting purposes:

• full name of child
• child’s gender
• child’s date of birth
• usual residential address of child
• full name of child’s parents or guardians.

Before making a funding claim for a child, the service must make sure that:

• parents or guardians sign the collection of information – privacy statement in the parent disclaimer and privacy statement information sheet (PDF 195 KB)
• the privacy statement is stored securely at the site.

Apply for funding

To apply for preschool funding under the Preschool Reform Agreement, complete the online funding application form.

The Department for Education Preschool Funding Unit will assess and respond to your application within 14 days.

Application assessment and funding agreements

You'll be advised of the outcome of your application in writing following completion of the department’s assessment process.

If your application is successful, you'll be offered a grant agreement on behalf of the Minister for Education, Training and Skills for signing.

You must return the signed agreement to the department, and is deemed to be executed once we've received it.

Delivering a preschool program for 3-year-olds from 2026

The South Australian Government is rolling out 3-year-old preschool from 2026.

More information to express interest in partnering with the government to deliver 3-year-old preschool from 2026 is available on the Office for the Early Childhood Development (OECD) website.

If a service is successful in becoming a partner service to deliver the new 3-year-old preschool model via the OECD, they will transition to this model for both 3- and 4-year-old funding from 2026.