Priority of Access and more hours of 4-Year-Old Kinder for 2028 enrolments

1. Introduction

The updated Priority of Access (PoA) criteria will apply to the allocation of all funded 3- and 4-Year-Old Kinder places from 2028. The criteria apply to children, regardless of whether they live within or outside the local government area (LGA) where the service is located. . These updates apply for 2028 enrolments and there are no further changes to the PoA arrangements for 2027 enrolments.

From 2028, PoA will introduce a new three-tier approach to prioritising children when demand exceeds available kindergarten places. The existing groups of children eligible for PoA remain unchanged. However, the order in which some groups are prioritised will change to provide greater recognition of children continuing from 3-Year-Old to 4-Year-Old Kinder at the same service, while maintaining the highest priority for children facing the greatest barriers to participation.

This guidance supports kindergarten services and Central Registration and Enrolment Scheme (CRES) providers to implement the updated criteria, including how to confirm eligibility and assess supporting evidence. PoA must be applied consistently across all funded kindergarten places at a service, rather than differently across programs. Kindergarten services and CRES providers should refer to the Kindergarten Funding Guide and the department’s website for information on the PoA policy and eligibility criteria.

The department recognises that services and CRES providers operate in different local contexts and may use different administrative processes. Services and CRES providers are encouraged to use their local knowledge and professional judgement when assessing eligibility and supporting evidence, while ensuring their processes are consistent with the intent of the PoA policy and do not create unnecessary barriers for families.

2. Allocating kindergarten places under PoA

Where demand from Tier 1 children exceeds the number of available kindergarten places, services and CRES providers can use local knowledge and professional judgement to determine how places are prioritised within Tier 1.
Services and CRES providers can either:
- apply the Tier 1 cohorts in the order they are listed within the PoA policy
- use a locally determined approach to prioritise children within Tier 1, based on local circumstances and consistent with the intent of the PoA policy.
The department recognises that local circumstances vary and that services and CRES providers need flexibility to respond to the needs of children and families in their local communities.
Where a locally determined approach is used, particular consideration should be given to ensuring the following children can access a kindergarten place that meets their needs:
- children at risk of abuse or neglect, including children who have had contact with Child Protection and children in out-of-home care
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
- refugee and asylum seeker children.
Whichever approach is used, services and CRES providers should clearly document how places are prioritised within Tier 1 and communicate this approach to families.
If a child becomes eligible for Tier 1 after kindergarten places have been offered, services should prioritise the child for any available places.
From 2028, PoA will be applied in the following order when there are more applications than available kindergarten places:
- Tier 1: Children facing the greatest barriers to accessing kindergarten have the highest priority.
  - children at risk of abuse or neglect, including children who have had contact with Child Protection and children in out-of-home care
  - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
  - refugee and asylum seeker children.
  - children with additional needs who require additional assistance to fully participate in the kindergarten program
  - children accessing an additional year of 3- and 4-Year-Old Kinder
- Tier 2: Children continuing from 3-Year-Old Kinder to 4-Year-Old Kinder at the same service are prioritised after Tier 1 children.
- Tier 3: Children and families meeting the following criteria are prioritised after Tier 1 and Tier 2:
  - children, parents or legal guardians who hold an eligible Commonwealth concession card
  - children from multiple births of triplets or more
  - children whose parent, carer or legal guardian has additional needs.
Prioritising children who meet both Tier 2 and Tier 3 criteria
Where there more Tier 2 children than available places, services and CRES providers should prioritise children who also meet Tier 3 criteria.
For example, if a child is continuing from 3-Year-Old Kinder to 4-Year-Old Kinder at the same service and their family holds an eligible Commonwealth concession card, they should be prioritised over the other Tier 2 children who do not meet Tier 3 criteria.
Applying locally agreed criteria
Once the PoA tiers have been applied, services and CRES providers must apply any additional prioritisation requirements for services in LGAs rolling out more hours of 4-Year-Old Kinder, where relevant.
Locally agreed criteria can then be used to allocate any remaining places.
Where a child has undertaken an additional year of 3-Year-Old Kinder and is moving to 4-Year-Old Kinder, PoA should be applied based on the child’s circumstances at the time of allocation.
If the child is continuing at the same service, they would be eligible under Tier 2 as a child currently attending the service. However, if the child also meets Tier 1 criteria, including where their circumstances have changed or they meet the criteria for additional needs, they must be prioritised under Tier 1.
Where a child meets more than one PoA tier, the highest applicable tier takes precedence.

3. Eligibility and supporting evidence requirements

Eligibility refers to the child, parent, carer or legal guardian meeting the criteria for PoA or more hours of 4-Year-Old Kinder. For some criteria, eligibility is required to be confirmed through supporting evidence.

Supporting evidence refers to documentation or information that reasonably demonstrates eligibility under a PoA criteria. Providers and CRES providers should consider the approaches and principles outlined in this document when determining processes to confirming eligibility.

To avoid creating unnecessary barriers to kindergarten participation, services and CRES providers should not require families to provide formal documentation or supporting evidence to confirm eligibility for the following Tier 1 PoA groups:
- children at risk of abuse or neglect, including children who have had contact with Child Protection
- children in out-of-home care
- Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children
- refugee and asylum seeker children.
This approach also applies when determining eligibility for more hours of 4-Year-Old Kinder.
Eligibility may be identified through:
- information provided verbally or in writing by a parent, carer or professional supporting the child or family
- existing knowledge of the child or family held by the service or CRES provider
- information already available through local registration, enrolment or support processes.
Services and CRES providers should use existing information wherever possible and avoid asking families to repeatedly disclose personal or sensitive circumstances.
Services and CRES providers should confirm eligibility for the following PoA criteria during the registration or allocation process:
Tier 1
children with additional needs
Tier 3
children, parents or legal guardian who hold an eligible Commonwealth concession card, including:
Commonwealth Health Care Card
Pensioner Concession Card
Veterans’ Affairs Card
children from multiple births of triplets or more.
Children whose parent, carer or legal guardian has additional needs.
Eligibility under these criteria may require supporting evidence, as the relevant circumstances may not be identifiable through standard registration or enrolment information.
Approaches to confirming eligibility
Services and CRES providers have flexibility in how they confirm eligibility and may:
Collect supporting documentation during registration or before places are allocated.
Sight supporting documentation without retaining a copy, where this is sufficient to confirm eligibility.
Use information already available through existing enrolment or support processes, where appropriate.
Services and CRES providers should clearly communicate to families what information may be required, when it needs to be provided and how it will be used to determine eligibility.
Keeping evidence requirements proportionate
Evidence requirements should be reasonable, proportionate and consistent with the intent of the PoA policy. Services and CRES providers should avoid:
requesting information that is already available
requiring families to repeatedly disclose sensitive personal circumstances
collecting more information than is necessary to confirm eligibility
creating unnecessary administrative barriers that may discourage families from accessing kindergarten.
Where additional verification is necessary, services and CRES providers should adopt a respectful, flexible and trauma-informed approach.
For example, eligibility relating to additional needs may be supported by existing documentation or confirmation from a qualified practitioner or specialist. Families should not be required to obtain new documentation where existing information is sufficient.
Services and CRES providers may develop local templates or guidance to help families understand what supporting information is needed.
Where a child or family becomes eligible for PoA after offers have been made, services should prioritise the child for any available places.
Children and families may be eligible for PoA under the additional needs criteria where complex medical needs affect a child's ability to access or participate in kindergarten.
To confirm eligibility, supporting evidence should reasonably demonstrate that the child, parent or carer has significant health, disability-related or medical needs that:
- require multiple forms of care, treatment or support
- have a significant impact on the child's access to, or participation in, a kindergarten program.
Supporting evidence
Evidence should be provided by a qualified professional involved in the ongoing care, treatment, or support of the child, parent or carer. This may include:
- a medical practitioner or specialist
- a psychologist or psychiatrist
- an allied health professional.
Existing documentation or confirmation from a relevant professional should be accepted where it provides sufficient information to establish eligibility. Families should not be required to obtain new or kindergarten-specific medical documentation where existing evidence is sufficient.
Services and CRES providers should use professional judgement when assessing supporting evidence and only request additional information where reasonably necessary to confirm eligibility.
Further information about eligibility for children and families with additional needs is available at: Priority of Access for 2028 enrolments.

3.4 Eligibility of concession card holders for PoA and more hours of 4-Year-Old Kinder

From 2028, Commonwealth concession card holders may be eligible for both Tier 3 PoA and more hours of 4-Year-Old Kinder.

When the card needs to be valid may differ between PoA and eligibility for more hours of 4-Year-
Old Kinder, depending on the documented local processes for PoA.

Eligibility for more hours of 4-Year-Old Kinder

A child is eligible for more hours of 4-Year-Old Kinder if they, their parent or legal guardian hold an eligible Commonwealth concession card that is valid at any time from 1 January of the year before the child attends 4-Year-Old Kinder.

Once eligibility has been established, the child remains eligible for more hours of 4-Year-Old Kinder even if the concession card subsequently expires.

Eligibility for Tier 3 Priority of Access

Services and CRES providers can decide when Commonwealth concession cards must be valid for PoA purposes. For example, they may:

align the eligibility requirements for PoA with the eligibility requirements for more hours of 4-Year-Old Kinder (that is, a child is eligible for PoA if they, or their parent or legal guardian holds a card that is valid at any time from 1 January of the year before the child attends kindergarten)
require cards to be valid at the time of registration
require cards to be valid when cards are checked before kindergarten places are allocated

Eligibility can be checked at one or more points before places are allocated.

Services and CRES providers must document their approach and clearly communicate the requirements to families in advance.

Depending on the approach adopted, a child may be eligible for more hours of 4-Year-Old Kinder but not qualify for Tier 3 PoA due to the timing of when the family ceased to hold a concession card.

Confirming eligibility

Services and CRES providers must confirm concession card eligibility in line with the requirements for more hours of 4-Year-Old Kinder and their documented local processes for PoA.

Eligibility can be confirmed by collecting:

a copy of the concession card; or
the relevant card number and expiry date.

Information collected should be limited to what is necessary to confirm eligibility and managed in accordance with applicable privacy requirements.

Examples of how eligibility applies

The following examples illustrate how the different requirements may apply.

Family circumstances	Tier 3 PoA	More hours of 4-Year-Old Kinder
Card is valid at registration and remains valid at allocation	Eligible	Eligible
Card is valid at registration but expires before allocation	Depends on the services or CRES provider's documented PoA approach	Eligible
Card becomes valid after registration but before allocation	Depends on the services or CRES provider's documented PoA approach	Eligible
Card was valid earlier in the registration year but expired before the family registered for kindergarten.	Depends on the services or CRES provider's documented PoA approach	Eligible

These examples assume the card was valid within the relevant eligibility period for more hours of 4-Year-Old Kinder.

4. PoA registration and enrolment forms

Services and CRES providers do not need to use the exact wording of the PoA criteria published on the department’s website in their registration and enrolment forms.

Instead, services and CRES providers are encouraged to use clear, accessible and family-friendly language that helps families understand what information is being requested and why, while avoiding unnecessary barriers or stigma.

For example, forms should not directly ask families whether their child is “at risk of abuse or neglect”. Questions about sensitive family circumstances should be framed respectfully and in a way that is trauma-informed and non-stigmatising.

Information about a child’s eligibility may also be provided by a professional who is already supporting the child or family, such as a Maternal and Child Health nurse. Where this information is sufficient to establish eligibility, families should not be required to provide it again.

This approach supports the identification of children eligible for PoA while respecting families' privacy and dignity and minimising unnecessary disclosure of sensitive information.

5. Information privacy

Personal and sensitive information collected during the registration or enrolment process must be handled in accordance with applicable privacy legislation.

Services and CRES providers should only collect information that is reasonably necessary to determine eligibility under the Priority of Access policy and support enrolment processes.

All information relating to a child or family’s circumstances must be treated confidentially, stored securely, and only accessed by staff with a legitimate role in the registration, enrolment or allocation process.

Information collected for the purposes of PoA should not be used or disclosed for other purposes unless permitted or required by law.

CRES providers and services should also ensure that processes for requesting, recording and discussing sensitive information are undertaken respectfully and in a way that protects the privacy and dignity of children and families.

Services and CRES providers should have policies covering the secure capture, handling, storage, sharing and destruction of personal information, consistent with their organisation’s standard privacy, data security and complaints management policies.

6. Further support and information for services

Services and CRES providers experiencing high enrolment demand, or requiring support with local planning, enrolment or programming approaches, should contact their local Early Childhood Improvement Branch (ECIB) as early as possible. This will support local planning to help ensure all children, and in particular those identified under PoA criteria can access a suitable kindergarten place.

As part of local planning and enrolment approaches, services and CRES providers are also encouraged to work collaboratively to support continuity of access for children undertaking an additional year of three- or four-year-old funded kindergarten at the same service, where appropriate.

Implementation guidance relating to Priority of Access evidence requirements will be incorporated into the updated Kindergarten Funding Guide and published on the department’s website, including accompanying information for parents and families.

Further information about Priority of Access is available at the Priority of Access 2028 page.

Education and training

Updated 28 October 2026