A new enrolment template from ACECQA aims to do more than tick boxes

ACECQA’s new enrolment record template offers ECEC services a chance to go beyond compliance and reflect on how their enrolment processes support safety, inclusion and meaningful relationships with families.

Enrolment may seem like a routine step in early childhood service delivery, but for children and families, it marks a significant transition. It is often the first formal exchange between a service and a family, and the foundation of a child’s learning journey.

This week, ACECQA released a new child enrolment record template, along with an accompanying guidance sheet, to help early childhood education and care (ECEC) services meet their legal obligations while also prompting deeper reflection on practice.

While the template helps ensure services capture all the required information under Regulation 160, it also opens the door to broader questions. What does enrolment look and feel like for families? Who is included? What assumptions are built into the paperwork? And how does this process influence a child’s sense of belonging?

A tool for quality, not just compliance

The template, available in both PDF and Word formats, is designed to be adapted. Services can tailor it to their philosophy, policies and community context. The accompanying guidance encourages services to view documentation as an opportunity to reflect on the people they care for. The guidance sheet encourages educators to move beyond form-filling and consider:

• Whether the questions they ask are meaningful and respectful
• How to support families with additional languages, needs or barriers
• What privacy and consent look like in practice, not just on paper
• How to create a welcoming and inclusive first point of contact

These are not just administrative details. They are moments that shape trust, safety and identity.

Why it matters

As the sector continues to evolve under increased public and policy scrutiny, tools like this one from ACECQA serve a dual purpose: ensuring compliance and supporting quality.

Thoughtful enrolment practices can help services:

• Build strong relationships with families from the start
• Reduce administrative risk through clear, well-kept records
• Honour diverse family structures, cultures and communication needs
• Strengthen alignment with the National Quality Standard

In short, how we enrol children sends a message about what matters. This resource offers a timely opportunity to review not only what information is gathered, but how and why.

Access the templates

The following resources are now available on ACECQA’s website:

• Child enrolment record template PDF
• Child enrolment record template Microsoft Word
• Guidance for child enrolment records information sheet

Services are encouraged to review and adapt the resources in line with their service model, and to use them as a prompt for professional reflection on enrolment and orientation practices.