Priority of Access

Eligibility and Priority of Access Criteria

For a funded kindergarten three or four-year-old Kindergarten program

Priority of Access (PoA) helps service providers determine which children are offered a funded kindergarten place first when there are more applications than places. This applies to all funded kindergarten programs in sessional and long day care services including places allocated through a Central Registration and Enrolment Scheme (CRES).

Services must use the PoA criteria when there are more eligible children than available kindergarten places. This means services must:

  • offer places based on the PoA criteria

  • work with other local kindergarten services and the local ECIB to help all eligible children access a kindergarten place.

PoA must be applied before any locally agreed criteria.

PoA applies to all children, whether they live inside or outside the local government area (LGA) where a service is located.

All information relating to PoA criteria should be respectfully collected from families upon enrolment, recorded in each child’s confidential enrolment record and entered into Arrival, where applicable.

Department of Education’s Priority of Access Criteria

  • The department’s PoA criteria apply to all enrolments for 2027, including Pre-Prep.

    Children that meet the Pre-Prep priority cohort criteria also meet the Tier 1 PoA criteria. These children must be given priority over children who do not meet the Tier 1 criteria.

    For services located in Pre-Prep rollout LGAs:

    • apply Tier 1 and Tier 2 PoA criteria first

    • then give priority to children who live in the LGA, and to those who live outside the LGA but whose nearest service is located within it, ahead of other children from outside the LGA.

  • Service providers and CRES can apply locally agreed criteria after applying PoA and, if relevant, Pre-Prep criteria for Pre-Prep roll-out.

    Examples include:

    • how close a family lives to the service

    • whether they have a connection to the service.

    These criteria must be documented and shared with families.

    Kindergarten places must be allocated in line with anti-discrimination and human rights laws.