Preschool funding agreement

The Commonwealth and Western Australian governments have signed a preschool funding agreement that will benefit more than 130,000 Western Australian children in the year before full-time school from 2022 to 2025.

The Preschool Reform Agreement confirms up to $190 million of Commonwealth funding for Kindergarten in Western Australia.

The agreement:

• supports children to attend 15 hours of Kindergarten each week in the year before full-time school
• ensures all children benefit from Commonwealth funding regardless of the setting they attend
• aims to improve Kindergarten enrolment and attendance
• maximises the benefit of Kindergarten by improving outcomes for children.

For more information refer to the Minister’s announcement.

Preschool Outcomes Measure

As part of the Preschool Reform Agreement, the Australian Government is introducing a Preschool Outcomes Measure tool. 

The tool will be developed and validated in 2024 and trialled nationally in 2025. 

The tool will provide teachers with information they can use to inform children’s learning. The tool is expected to align with approved learning frameworks such as the Early Years Learning Framework V2.0, 2022, or state-approved equivalents.

Use of the tool will be optional.

We are working with the Australian Government to ensure the tool will suit Western Australian schools. The trial in 2025 will give us a chance to look at how well the tool supports students, teachers and reduces workload.

We will provide updates once further details about the tool and the trial emerge.

For more information about the preschool outcome measure, refer to the Australian Government Website.