Changes to Child Care Subsidy commenced on 10 July 2023, which means child care is now cheaper for most families. It also means some families previously not eligible for Child Care Subsidy will now get it. This change provides more support for more families across Australia.

Child Care Subsidy changes include:

• The family income limit to get Child Care Subsidy has increased from $356,756 to $530,000 per annum.
• The maximum amount of Child Care Subsidy has increased from 85% to 90%.
• Families earning $80,000 or less get a Child Care Subsidy rate of 90%.
• Families earning over $80,000 may get a Child Care Subsidy rate starting from 90%. This will go down by 1% for each $5,000 of income they earn above $80,000. This rate reaches 0% for families earning $530,000.
• Families earning below $362,408 with more than one child aged 5 or under in care can still get a higher rate for one or more of their children.
• Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children can get at least 36 subsidised hours of early childhood education and care per fortnight, regardless of their family's activity level.

Changes to Family Assistance Law, which give effect to increases in the subsidy, came into effect on 1 July 2023.

Three things will determine a family's level of Child Care Subsidy:
1. Combined family income

2. Activity level of parents

3. Type of child care service

For more information on this process, visit education.gov.au/childcare

To access the CCS Estimator visit: http://www.humanservices.gov.au/paymentfinder

Kindergarten is very similar to the other age groups at Kookaburra in that we provide high quality educational programs for all the children enrolled in the room.

However our Kindergarten program caters specifically for children in the year prior to Prep. In addition to the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) our Kindergarten curriculum is informed by the Queensland Kindergarten Learning Guidlines (QKLG). We employ a Bachelor Qualified Early Childhood Teacher to run our Kindergarten progam with face to face delivery of the program from 8.30am to 3.30pm Monday to Friday. Outside these hours we have a Diploma Qualified Lead Educator to run the program.

For children to get the most out of our Kindergarten program, they should arrive before 9am and leave after 3.30pm.

Our Kindergarten is Government Approved, this means low income families whose children have health care cards can access additional fee relief for their child to attend a kindergarten program, however they must attend at least 3 days per week and cannot be attending another government approved kindergarten program.

In addition parents of Kindergarten aged children are offered exemption from the Goverments activity test for the purpose of Child Care Subsidy (CCS). This means you can access upto 36 hours of subsidised care for your Kindergarten aged child even if you don't currently meet the governments activity test requirements. 

Click here to learn more about our curruculum.