Partner to deliver three-year-old preschool

The ACT Government has entered a third-party payment agreement with the Australian Government for payment of the gap fee amount after the Child Care Subsidy is applied.

Under this arrangement, early childhood education and care services can still receive other funding such as the Inclusion Support Program.

Find out more about free three-year-old preschool.

How to become a partner provider

We partner with early childhood education and care services to deliver the free three-year-old preschool program.

The program supports up to 300 hours of free preschool per year, per child. The child must be enrolled with a partner provider in the ACT.

We'll invite you to become a partner provider when you become an approved early childhood education and care service.

You must have a funding agreement in place to deliver three-year-old preschool.

To partner with us you must:

• be an approved provider under the National Quality Framework
• have approval to operate an education and care service under National Law
• deliver a quality preschool program using a degree qualified early childhood teacher
• be operating and reporting through the Child Care Subsidy System.

You must also meet the National Quality Standard for:

• Governance and Leadership
• Educational Programs and Practice.

Obligations of partner providers

Partner providers must:

• get a consent form for each enrolled child
• give accurate enrolment data
• publicly acknowledge the funding received from the ACT Government
• communicate the fee reduction to families
• support children to transition to 4 year-old preschool.

You'll need to show:

• quality improvement processes, such as quality learning programs and play-based learning
• workforce supports such as improved pay and conditions and professional development
• reinvestment of revenue to support children and staff.

Partner providers must meet the requirements in the funding agreement and program guidelines.

Read the 2025 three-year-old preschool program guidelines [PDF 566 KB].

Read the 2026 three-year-old preschool program guidelines [PDF 654 KB] (effective from 2 January 2026).

Find out more about the obligations of early childhood education services.

How the funding works

You can get up to $2,575 per child per year. This includes:

• fee relief
• program funding.

The total funding amount should be used for fee relief for all families.

Any remaining funds at the end of the quarter can be used towards program funding.

Fee relief

To work out the fee relief amount for families for the 2025-26 financial year use our three-year-old preschool calculator [XLSX 241 KB].

To work out the fee relief amount for families for the 2024-25 financial year use our three-year-old preschool calculator [XLSX 161 KB].

This is for up to 300 hours of program delivery across the year. Families will continue to pay the usual rate for any extra hours or days attended.

Contact us