Strategic objective: Every child starting strong
We are setting the critical foundations for children's futures through quality early childhood services. We provide strategic leadership in early learning and child development through policy development and implementation, risk-based regulation, and continuous quality improvement. We use evidence-based strategies to increase the access, participation, inclusion and wellbeing of children aged from birth to 8 years in early childhood programs and services.
Kindy
Kindy is a critical stage for children to develop important early learning skills, build confidence and enhance their overall wellbeing.
In 2025–26, our free kindy initiative continued with more than 64,000 children experiencing rich learning environments where they could explore new ideas, learn through play, engage in meaningful routines, and build connections with friends and educators.
The initiative provides all Queensland children with the opportunity to attend kindy free for 15 hours per week, 40 weeks per year and continues to ensure cost is not a barrier to kindy access, and Queensland families are supported by relieving cost-of-living pressures.
More information about
free kindergarten is available.
Access to kindy for children in rural and remote areas
Every child, no matter where they live, deserves the opportunity to thrive through quality early childhood education. Through the ongoing delivery, oversight and governance of State Delivered Kindy (SDK) and eKindy, we continue to support rural and remote children to access free kindy programs that lay the foundation for a brighter future.
SDK is offered in schools located at least 40 kilometres by road from the nearest approved kindy, in selected discrete Aboriginal communities and Torres Strait Islander communities, or other selected communities where there are barriers to accessing kindy.
In 2025–26, SDK was delivered across 141 locations, giving more than 900 children a strong foundation for their educational journey. This included the opening of 2 new SDKs at Mutarnee State School in North Queensland and Irvinebank State School in Far North Queensland.
The eKindy program supports children to access a free kindy program by distance education in circumstances where they are unable to attend an approved kindy offered by an early childhood service or an SDK due to distance, a medical condition or itinerant lifestyle. In 2025–26, the program supported more than 130 children to access an at-home kindergarten program for 15 hours per week, 40 weeks per year.
Since late 2024, in discrete Aboriginal communities and Torres Strait Islander communities in selected locations, 4-year-olds have been able to access additional free hours of early childhood education in an SDK or other approved kindy service. By 30 June 2026, under a consultative approach, a total of 26 SDKs and one community kindy have commenced offering extended kindy hours for children in their local community.
More information on the
SDK program and
eKindy program are available.
Supporting healthy futures
Every child deserves the best start in life to build a bright and healthy future.
To support children with health issues who require treatment in a hospital setting, we expanded the Hospital Kindy program beyond the Queensland Children's Hospital in Brisbane to 8 regional hospitals. With an additional investment of $700,000 per annum, this initiative demonstrates the department's commitment to helping young learners overcome barriers, ensuring they have the opportunity to thrive and continue their education while receiving essential care.
The program expanded in Term 3, 2025, with Cairns, Gold Coast, Logan and Townsville hospitals joining our existing site to deliver over 100 bedside kindy sessions to 73 children that year. In Term 1, 2026, the program grew further to include Ipswich, Rockhampton, Toowoomba and Sunshine Coast hospitals, providing 72 sessions to an additional 52 children. The expansion ensures more young learners can access vital early education while receiving care.
Building on the success of the Hospital Kindy program, the department also partnered with the Starlight Foundation, Ronald McDonald House Charities South Brisbane and the Mater Foundation to offer playgroups to visiting families and children accessing the South Brisbane hospital precinct. Almost 200 children attended over 40 playgroup sessions delivered at Ronald McDonald House Charities and the Starlight Foundation in Term 1, 2026, with Mater playgroups commencing in Term 2, 2026.
To identify health or developmental concerns early, before children start primary school, Queensland's youngest learners are now also being supported through the Healthy Kindy Kids Initiative. Led by the Department of Health in partnership with the Department of Education, this program was launched in October 2025 to deliver free health checks to kindy children to help address potential issues before they impact formal education.
As part of the Healthy Kindy Kids Program, health teams visit registered kindergarten programs and childcare centres to provide free on-site screening for vision, hearing, speech and language development, prioritising those children whose parents and teachers have identified concerns.
Early interventions
When children are healthy, well and supported in their early development journey, they have the greatest chance of achieving long-term positive outcomes.
In 2025–26, we continued to prioritise our youngest Queenslanders, focusing on intervention and prevention in the early years through targeted investments to improve outcomes and break cycles of disadvantage.
Initiatives include:
- extending free kindergarten for up to 600 kindergarten-age children residing in discrete Aboriginal communities and Torres Strait Islander communities each year to access a free, extended hours kindergarten program
- establishing supported playgroups to allow families greater access to early years services
- providing family support coordination in 152 primary schools in targeted areas to assist families and enable smooth transitions into school for children in Prep to Year 2.
To support children in care, Principal Education Officers, Students in Care, prioritise collaboration between the Department of Families, Seniors, Disability Services and Child Safety and schools to ensure continuity of support as children transition into Prep.
Queensland Early Childhood Workforce Strategy 2025–28
Early childhood educators play a vital role in nurturing young minds, fostering curiosity and laying the foundation for lifelong learning and success.
In 2025, we released the Queensland Early Childhood Workforce Strategy 2025–28 to grow and retain a high-quality workforce, strengthen support systems and modernise workforce approaches.
Key initiatives under the strategy include:
- funding specialist positive behaviour guidance coaches through the Positive Behaviour Guidance Program
- launching new programs to support educators, including a Leadership and Management Program and a Reforming Early Childhood Safety Program to prepare for new child safety legislation and guidelines
- offering the community-based teacher education program to support and employ more Aboriginal early educators and Torres Strait Islander early educators, including through the Remote Area Teacher Education Program, which helps educators in regional, rural and remote areas gain or upgrade their qualifications while staying in their communities
- delivering a rural and remote residential program to support educators in completing early childhood qualifications.
Qualifications Pathways Program
Investing in the early childhood workforce and nurturing professional expertise ensures that every child begins their learning journey supported by skilled, passionate and dedicated educators who inspire a love of learning from the very start.
In 2025–26, we continued to provide scholarships and comprehensive mentoring through the Qualifications Pathways Program to support 1,306 early childhood educators in advancing their credentials. Scholarships under the program are available for recognised qualifications accredited by the Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority, including:
- a Graduate Diploma or Bachelor's degree with a specialisation in early childhood education, catering to the age groups of birth to 5 years or birth to 8 years
- a Certificate III or Diploma in early childhood education.
The program's extensive support includes:
- coaching and mentorship initiatives designed to upskill educators
- assistance with arranging practicum placements, which can be either paid or unpaid
- provision for study leave or allocated study time during working hours, which may be either paid or unpaid, as agreed with the approved provider or early years services organisation.
For teachers and teacher aides working in state schools that offer SDK, Professional Learning Grants continued to financially assist staff to upgrade their qualifications.
Early Childhood Practicum Placement Grant
Providing financial support to students allows more individuals to follow their passion and build rewarding careers in early childhood education.
The Early Childhood Practicum Grant provides financial support to eligible students on completion of the final work placement of their qualification. Eligible students received a grant of $5,000, with an additional $5,000 for those who chose to complete their placement in outer regional, remote or very remote areas.
In 2025–26, 11 students received the Early Childhood Practicum Placement Grant.
Early Childhood Guidance Program
Strengthening the skills and capabilities of teachers and educators in guiding behaviour and ensuring safety is essential to creating positive, child-safe environments in early childhood centres.
In 2025–26, the Early Childhood Guidance Program continued to support educators by enhancing their ability to guide children's behaviour positively and ensure their safety. The initiative offered a range of supports to professionals across all regulated early childhood settings, including:
- programs and training focused on preventing child abuse and neglect, delivered by the National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect
- workshops and webinars on positive behaviour guidance conducted by Autism Queensland
- access to tools and resources.
Kindy Inclusion
The Kindergarten Inclusion Service provides $3.2 million in funding for 4 specialist organisations to provide advice and support to build educator capability and enhance the access, inclusion and outcomes of kindergarten children with additional needs. Under this initiative, Autism Queensland, Speld Qld, Hear and Say, and Down Syndrome and Intellectual Disability Queensland support kindy educators across the state to enhance inclusive environments.
In 2025–26, the service was expanded to provide a tailored pilot support program to 5 discrete Aboriginal communities. Delivered by Autism Queensland and Speld Qld, the program ensured cultural safety remained a key priority while supporting children in these communities.
Kindy Uplift program
Kindy Uplift can be used to fund professional development, programs, resources and supports to build teacher and educator capability and support inclusion in all approved kindergarten programs, including sessional and long day care kindergarten services.
In 2025–26, our Kindy Uplift program continued to provide funding to address children's learning and development needs through evidence-based initiatives aimed at improving outcomes for kindy children. Participating services were also supported to engage in data-driven discussions to enhance the learning and development outcomes of children across Queensland.
Safe early childhood settings
The first few years of a child's life are critical for growth and development, and we are committed to ensuring early childhood environments are safe and supportive.
The department continues to lead the national response to child safety reforms, with delivery of the National Decision Regulation Impact Statement to Education Ministers to respond to the recommendations of the review of child safety arrangements under the National Quality Framework.
The resulting legislative amendments commenced in stages from 10 December 2025 to 27 February 2026. They focus on stronger safeguards to support child safety and transparency, improved educator training and provider accountability.
Queensland is proud to lead the development of the national child safety training in partnership with the Australian Centre for Child Protection on behalf of the Australian Government and all states and territories. Since the launch of the foundation level training on 27 February 2026, 64,391 professionals have completed the training across Queensland.
The Queensland Government is further strengthening child safety with the development of new mandatory advanced child safety training. The advanced courses an individual is required to complete will depend on their role.
In the year ahead, Queensland is committed to working closely with the sector to implement further national reforms to strengthen child safety.
Regulating early childhood education and care
As the Queensland Early Childhood Regulatory Authority, we regulate early childhood education and care services to reduce risk to children's safety, drive voluntary compliance and promote continuous quality improvement.
Our regulation activities include providing information and advice to approved providers, assessing and rating services against the National Quality Standard, conducting regular service monitoring visits and taking enforcement action as necessary to ensure any identified issues of non-compliance are effectively addressed.
The Regulatory Authority's proactive approach to monitoring ensures that every approved service receives a monitoring visit at least annually, to check on quality and compliance, with additional visits based on risk.
When providers fail to meet their obligations to protect children, the Regulatory Authority does not hesitate to take compliance action, including suspension, cancellation, prohibition and prosecution.
In 2025–26, quality rating data demonstrated that early childhood education and care services in Queensland continue to deliver safe and high-quality services to Queensland children, with 91% of services with a quality rating meeting or exceeding the National Quality Standard as at 30 June 2026.
The Early Childhood Regulatory Authority visited every approved and operating service in the 2025–26 financial year, with additional visits based on risk.
Regulatory changes
The Regulatory Authority remains committed to continuously monitoring and addressing emerging issues to ensure the safety, wellbeing and quality of early childhood services across the state.
In 2025, we launched new regulatory priorities for 2025–27, driving awareness and voluntary compliance in the key areas of child safety, staffing and outdoor space. These priorities are checked at every monitoring visit.
The Regulatory Authority also worked with the sector to support the implementation of far-reaching legislative amendments resulting from the National Child Safety Reforms, including a new offence of inappropriate conduct, restrictions on the use of personal devices, the introduction of a National Worker Register and the new mandatory child safety training.
As well as these national reforms, Queensland introduced specific regulatory amendments in 2025–26. From 1 January 2026, rest period conditions were removed for Queensland services, requiring ratio requirements to be consistently met throughout the day, aligning with requirements in other states and territories.
Regulatory data
Publishing
regulatory data provides transparency around the Regulatory Authority's work and encourages voluntary compliance and improved service quality in the early childhood sector.
The department regularly publishes regulatory data on applications, monitoring visits, notifications of incidents and complaints, and compliance and enforcement actions.
Service area performance
Objective
Queensland children engaged in quality early years programs that support learning and development and strengthen successful transitions to school.
Description
Providing children with access to quality early childhood education and care, supporting early interventions that drive better outcomes in the early years, and strengthening children's transition to school. Services include the establishment, funding and monitoring of kindergarten and integrated early years services, and regulation (including assessment and rating) of education and care services.
Table 2: Early Childhood Education and Care performance measures
Proportion of Queensland children enrolled in an early childhood education program1 | 95% | 104.6% |
Proportion of enrolments in an early childhood education program
1 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
| 95% | 115.5% |
Proportion of enrolments in an early childhood education program
1 - Children who reside in disadvantaged areas
| 95% | 99.6% |
Proportion of children developmentally on track on 4 or more (of 5) Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) domains2 | - | - |
|
Efficiency measure |
2025–26 target/estimate |
2025–26 actual |
|---|
Notes:
1 Results over 100% are possible as the nationally agreed measure is the number of children enrolled (aged 4 or 5) divided by the estimated resident population of 4-year-old children.
2 The 2025–26 target/estimate has not been included as the AEDC is conducted every 3 years, with the next census to be conducted in 2027.
3 Government expenditure per child—kindergarten is calculated by dividing the total budget per annum by the number of children in the previous kindergarten year.
Additional performance information
The following data is also available: