Three-year-old Kinder on the way for children living in Hepburn Shire

Children in Hepburn Shire Council will be able to access funded three-year-old kindergarten from the first time in 2021 at sites such as Daylesford Community Child Care, Daylesford Preschool, Hepburn Kindergarten and Trentham Kindergarten.

Bringing three-year-old kindergarten to Victoria is part of the Government’s almost $5 billion decade-long reform to make two years of universal funded kindergarten programs available for all children across the state in an Australian-first.

The reform started this year in the six local government areas of South Gippsland, Buloke, Hindmarsh, Northern Grampians, Strathbogie and Yarriambiack and three-year-old kindergarten will roll out to families in a further 15 regional LGAs, including Hepburn Shire, in 2021.

Kindergarten services across these areas are getting ready to introduce the initiative, with many already accepting enrolments for 2021. This includes sessional kindergartens and long day care centres, with places funded in the same way as four-year-old kindergarten programs.

Three-year-old kindergarten will be expanded in 2022 to give three-year-olds across the rest of the state access to five hours of funded kindergarten, before being scaled up to a full 15-hour program by 2029. At full roll-out, an estimated 90,000 children each year will be receiving this boost.

Parents can enrol their children for a three-year-old program by contacting their local early childhood service.