Preschool Attendance methodology

Latest release
Reference period
2024
Released
9/05/2025
Next release Unknown
First release

Overview

Scope

Data on children in their year before full-time schooling who, at the enrolment reference point, were enrolled in preschool program(s) offering 600 hours or more per year and attended for at least one hour in Term 2.

Geography

Data available for:

  • Australia
  • States and territories

Source

The National Preschool Attendance Collection (NPAC) is an administrative data collection sourced from the Australian Government and state and territory education departments. 

Collection method

Data on preschool education and service providers are collected from administrative data collections and collated by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) through the NPAC. 

Concepts, sources and methods

The NPAC is based on administrative data collected from Australian Government, state and territory education departments.

The reference period is Term 2 of the schooling year for each jurisdiction; that is 15 April to 19 July 2024

History of changes

Not applicable for this release. 

Introduction

This publication contains statistics on children’s attendance in preschool programs in Australia. The statistics were compiled from data collected through the National Preschools Attendance Collection (NPAC). 

The NPAC was established in 2024 to improve the quality of preschool attendance data required for reporting under National Partnership Agreements (Preschool Reform Agreement). Preschool in Australia is a shared responsibility between the Commonwealth and state and territory (State) governments, with State governments primarily responsible for delivery.  In delivering the NPAC, the ABS collects, processes, and releases the data. The ABS appreciates the contributions from governments, education offices and preschool service providers in the production of this publication.  

Data collection

Scope and coverage

The scope of the NPAC consists of all children aged 3 to 6 years (inclusive) enrolled in a preschool program at the enrolment reference point, and attending at least one hour during Term 2. 

Of the records collected, only children enrolled in a Year Before Full-time Schooling (YBFS) preschool program(s) offering 600 (or more) program hours per year at the enrolment reference point are in-scope of the published data.

The Enrolment Reference Point is the Monday of the last full week of Term 2 which is common to all states and territories. A child is counted if they are enrolled in a program as at that day, regardless of which day of the week the child attends. The 2024 enrolment reference point was determined to be 3 June 2024. To achieve comprehensive coverage, data was sourced from the Australian Government and state and territory education departments, who collect administrative data from preschool and early childhood education and care providers. 

Statistical linkage was used to match children reported on multiple datasets, deduplicate attendance episodes, and aggregate attendance hours.

Transitional arrangements

The ABS agreed to transitional arrangements with the Victorian Department of Education (Vic. DE), New South Wales Department of Education (NSW DoE), and Tasmanian Department for Education, Children and Young People (Tas. DECYP) for participation in the NPAC 2024 collection cycle. 

For Victoria, the transitional arrangement allowed the Vic. DE to provide data collected from a subset of 9 service providers across 317 service sites.  

For New South Wales, the transitional arrangement allowed the NSW DoE to provide data collected for the National Early Childhood Education and Care Collection (NECECC) 2024 cycle, extrapolated to align with the NPAC data collection template as closely as possible. 

For Tasmania, the transitional arrangement allowed the Tas. DECYP to provide independent preschools data collected for the NECECC 2024 cycle, extrapolated to align with the NPAC data collection as closely as possible. 

Further information on the transitional arrangements as well as coverage in each state and territory for the NPAC 2024 collection is described in the Jurisdictional data quality statements

Information on Child Care Subsidy (CCS) approved preschool programs delivered in Centre Based Day Care (CBDC) settings was provided by the Australian Government Department of Education (Australian Government DoE) from the Child Care Subsidy System (CCSS). Information on non-CCS approved CBDC data was provided by state and territory education departments, where available. All services approved for administering CCS must provide data.

Non-permanent residents are not eligible for CCS and therefore are not expected to appear in the data supplied by the Australian Government DoE. They may be included in dedicated preschools data supplied by state and territory education departments.

Preschool program

For the purposes of the NPAC, a preschool program is defined as a structured, play-based learning program, delivered by a degree qualified teacher, aimed primarily at children in the year or two before they commence full-time schooling irrespective of the type of institution that provides it or whether it is government funded or privately provided. Programs may be delivered in a variety of service settings including separate preschools or kindergartens, or long day care centres, in association with a school. Participation in preschool is not compulsory and is influenced by parental preference and other factors, such as school starting age in the given jurisdiction.

Preschool programs are referred to by a variety of other terms across state and territories. Preschool age entry requirements also differ across states and territories. These differences are summarised in the following table:

Preschool programs in Australia
 Preschool programTransition to primary school Foundation year (year prior to year 1)
State/territoryProgram nameAge of entry - preschool program in
 year before full time schooling (YBFS)
School yearEligible age of entryCompulsory age of entry
New South Wales Preschool4 years by 31 July Kindergarten5 years by 31 July6 years by 31 December
Victoria  Kindergarten4 years by 30 AprilPreparatory (Prep)5 years by 30 April6 years by 23 December
QueenslandKindergarten4 years by 30 JunePreparatory (Prep)5 years by 30 June6.5 years by 31 December
South Australia (a)Preschool4 years by 1 MayReception5 years by 1 May6 years by 15 December
Western AustraliaKindergarten4 years by 30 JunePre-Primary5 years by 30 June5.5 years by 31 December
TasmaniaKindergarten4 years by 1 JanuaryPreparatory (Prep)5 years by 1 January5 years by 1 January
Northern Territory Preschool4 years by 30 JuneTransition5 years by 30 June6 years by 30 June
Australian Capital TerritoryPreschool4 years by 30 AprilKindergarten5 years by 30 April6 years by 30 April
  1. The compulsory school starting age in South Australia is 6 years at the oldest. South Australia introduced a mid-year intake into preschools from 2023, and for Reception in 2024. The mid-year intake does not apply to NPAC given the Term 2 reference period.

Source: Report on Government Services.

Collection date and reference period

The NPAC reference period agreed to by the Australian Government and state and territory education departments is Term 2 of the schooling year for each jurisdiction. This means the permissible reference period spans 15 April 2024 to 19 July 2024, including CCS approved services.

CCS approved services have a 12-week Term 2 reference period, starting from the beginning of the relevant jurisdiction’s public school Term 2 start date. In exceptional circumstances, a different reference period may be used if agreed to by the Australian Government DoE, the jurisdiction and the ABS. Public school term dates for 2024 are summarised in the table below; independent and Catholic schools have no definitive set of school term dates and these often vary from term dates for public schools by one to two weeks.

Public school Term 2 dates
State/territoryPublic school Term 2 dates
New South WalesMonday 29 April to Friday 5 July 2024(a)
VictoriaMonday 15 April to Friday 28 June 2024
QueenslandMonday 15 April to Friday 21 June 2024
South AustraliaMonday 29 April to Friday 5 July 2024
Western AustraliaMonday 15 April to Friday 28 June 2024
TasmaniaMonday 29 April to Friday 5 July 2024(b)
Northern TerritoryMonday 15 April to Friday 21 June 2024
Australian Capital TerritoryMonday 29 April to Friday 5 July 2024
  1. Jurisdiction extrapolated data collected for the NECECC with a two-week reference period of Monday 29 July to Friday 9 August 2024. The fortnightly data was converted to a one-week average per NECECC arrangements, then multiplied by the standard NSW government Term 2, 2024 duration of 10 weeks.
  2. Jurisdiction extrapolated data collected from independent schools for the NECECC with a two-week reference period of Monday 29 July to Friday 9 August 2024. The fortnightly data was then extrapolated to the Tasmanian Term 2, 2024 duration of 10 weeks.

Processing the data

Data quality and comparability

To ensure national comparability, all jurisdictions are required to follow national data standards. The NPAC National Minimum Data Set (NMDS) is a set of national data standards established by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) together with the ABS, Australian Government DoE, and state and territory education departments.

Jurisdictional data quality statements detail if and where jurisdictions were unable to align their collection methods with the NPAC NMDS. Issues affecting data comparability between the states and territories are included as footnotes within the publication’s data cube.

The first NPAC cycle occurred in 2024, and therefore there are no previous releases of the data to which the current release can be compared.

Statistics in this release may not be fully comparable with those in the ABS’ Preschool Education release due to differences in coverage, methodologies, and data items collected. Caution should therefore be used when comparing data from the Preschool Attendance and Preschool Education publications. 

A key difference between the collections is the counting rule for children attending CCS-approved services. For the NECECC, CCS-approved children are counted as attending all program hours that are offered by a given service when they enrolled. For the NPAC, the attendance hours are counted based on the time of day a child was signed into and out of the service each day. This difference results in higher attendance figures for CCS-approved services in NECECC. 

Differences in the scope and counting rules for the NPAC mean that the data presented in the publication is not strictly comparable to data published in other national or state and territory publications. 

For more information on comparability of the Preschool Attendance to the Preschool Education publication, or other national or state/territory publications, please refer to the Coherence section of the jurisdictional data quality statements. 

Measurement concepts

Jurisdictions collect and report data for the NPAC using a unit record level (URL) collection methodology. A URL methodology collects information for individual children and service providers. A URL collection is the most appropriate method for ensuring a child who is attending multiple preschool programs is only counted once in child level estimates. 

Annual attendance hours

Attendance and operationally unavailable hours across the attendance reference period are summed and divided by the number of program weeks in the attendance reference period, to calculate average weekly attendance hours for each episode. This weekly average is multiplied by the annual program weeks for the episode. 

Annual attendance at the episode level is aggregated to the child level to produce annual attendance hours for a child. Statistical linkage is used to aggregate attendance hours for children with multiple attendance episodes.

Attendance reference period

The attendance reference period must include the jurisdiction’s second term (Term 2), acknowledging that states and territories have different dates for this period. 

Child-specific year before full-time school

The Child-specific year before full-time school (CSYBFS) population considers the preschool and school entry provisions of the child's home state, and the child’s date of birth. A child is counted as being in the CSYBFS if, according to state rules, their birth date means they are:

  • Eligible for preschool, and it is the year before they become eligible for school, or
  • Eligible for preschool or school, and school is compulsory the following year, and they were not identified as a YBFS repeater.

The ‘Preschool programs in Australia’ table describes the age criteria for preschool and school eligibility for each jurisdiction. The ABS derives from these details the CSYBFS information for the Preschool Attendance 2024 publication. 

Enrolment Reference Point

Derived as the Monday in the last week, common to all states, with five school days in Term 2. That is, every day in the week is a school day across all states and territories. A child is counted if they are enrolled in a program as at that day, regardless of which day of the week the child attends. 

For CCSS purposes, a child is considered enrolled under a preschool program once the child's participation is charged for at least one hour of care in that week.

Episodes

For the NPAC, an episode is a single occurrence of a child enrolled in and/or attending a preschool program. When a child attends two different preschool programs, this is described as a child having two attendance episodes.

Home state

Home state is the state of the child’s preschool provider at the enrolment reference point. If a child is enrolled with multiple providers in different states, the provider with the highest program hours is used. If program hours are equal, the provider with the highest attendance hours is used. If enrolment and attendance hours are equal, the provider is chosen randomly.

Hours attended during the reference period

Hours attended during the reference period for children in dedicated preschool (sessional) programs are based on the length of a session for each child reported as attending, not arrival and departure times. Actual session hours should be reported (e.g. duration calculated from session start and end time). Where this is not feasible, there was an option to report an estimate of hours if the estimation methodology is explained and is sound. For details on how jurisdictions calculate hours attended during the reference period, refer to the jurisdictional data quality statements.

Hours attended in the reference period in CBDC contexts are calculated based on arrival and departure times recorded in the CCSS for individual children.

Operationally unavailable hours

The number of operationally unavailable hours in the attendance period that affected a child’s preschool program attendance hours, where the reason for unavailability was due to safety (a risk to attendees at the service provider or in relation to access to the location), planning and pupil-free days, or public holidays.

Operationally unavailable hours are combined with reported attendance hours in published estimates of attendance. 

For details on how jurisdictions calculate operationally unavailable hours, refer to the jurisdictional data quality statements.

Program hours

Hours offered in the programs in which a child is enrolled, regardless of child specific enrolment dates. For example, if a program offers 600 hours in a year, 600 program hours would be reported even if a child enrolled part-way through the year. 

If a child is enrolled in multiple programs, program hours are summed at the child level. For example, if a child is enrolled in two programs which each offer 300 hours in a year, the child is considered to be enrolled in programs offering 600 hours per year. 

Program weeks

The number of weeks in the program in which a child is enrolled (by year or term), regardless of child-specific enrolment dates. For example, if a program runs for nine weeks in a term, nine program weeks would be reported, even if a child enrols part-way through the term. If a child attends a single day in a given calendar week, this will count as an entire program week. 

Rounding

Hours data has been rounded to one decimal place prior to being assigned to distinct ranges. Where estimates are rounded, discrepancies may occur between component items and their totals.

Unique child counts

The unique child count ensures that when a child attends two or more different preschool programs, the child is only counted once. In any given collection year, the number of unique children is expected to be less than the number of preschool episodes.

YBFS repeaters

Children who enrol in a YBFS preschool program two years in a row are not included in CSYBFS estimates in their second year of YBFS preschool. In the absence of a previous year of NPAC data, 2024 NPAC data was matched to 2023 NECECC data to identify YBFS repeaters. A child is determined to be a YBFS repeater if they can be matched between cycles and are determined to have been enrolled in a YBFS preschool program(s) offering 600 (or more) program hours per year in both years. 

Data release

Classifications

Statistics in this publication are presented according to service type, statistical geography and Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA).

Service type

Where a child is enrolled in multiple preschool programs, the child’s service type is determined by the service activity type of all the providers at which the child was enrolled.

Statistical geography

For the 2024 collection, data has been classified to the 2021 Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS). The ASGS is based on results from the 2021 Census, including SEIFA.

The digital boundaries, codes and labels for each of these regions can be downloaded at Statistical geography on the ABS website free of charge.

Socio-economic indexes for areas

SEIFA is a product developed especially for those interested in the assessment of the welfare of Australian communities. SEIFA is a suite of 4 summary measures that have been created from 2021 Census of Population and Housing information. For each index, every geographic area in Australia is given a SEIFA number which shows how disadvantaged that area is compared with other areas in Australia. Quintiles are calculated by ordering the scores for all areas from lowest to highest, with the lowest 20% of areas given a quintile number of 1 and so on, up to the highest 20% of areas which are given a quintile number of 5. The indexes provide more general measures of socio-economic status than is given by measuring, for example, income or unemployment alone. The SEIFA index used for the NPAC is the Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD). Where a child’s geography was not stated, the SEIFA IRSD is published as 'Not Stated'.

For more information on SEIFA please refer to the Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas.

Confidentiality

Information received by the ABS is treated in strict confidence as required by the Census and Statistics Act 1905 and the Privacy Act 1988. Some figures in this publication have been perturbed to prevent the disclosure of information that may allow the identification of individuals or organisations.

Jurisdictional data quality statements

The 2024 NPAC brings together data from the Australian Government DoE and state and territory education departments, to support performance based preschool attendance reporting for the Preschool Reform Agreement

The NPAC uses standards to ensure the quality and consistency of data submitted. The 2024 National Preschool Attendance Collection National Minimum Data Set (NMDS) (2024 NPAC NMDS) sets the NPAC standards for data collected in 2024. The jurisdictional data quality statements support the assessment of quality and consistency across NPAC data submissions. The statements, informed by the ABS Data Quality Framework, have been developed by the stakeholders responsible for submitting data for the NPAC, in consultation with the ABS. 

Jurisdictional data quality statements have been provided by the:

  • Australian Government - Department of Education (Australian Government DoE)
  • New South Wales - Department of Education (NSW DoE)
  • Victoria - Department of Education (Vic. DE)
  • Queensland - Department of Education (Qld DoE)
  • South Australia - Department for Education (SA DfE)
  • Western Australia - Department of Education (WA DoE)
  • Tasmania - Department for Education, Children and Young People (Tas. DECYP)
  • Northern Territory - Department of Education and Training (NT DET)
  • ACT - Education Directorate (the Directorate)

To enhance readability across the data quality statements, the term ‘preschool’ has been used in place of where some jurisdictions may otherwise use the term ‘kindergarten’ or ‘early childhood education program’ (see the Glossary for more information).

Australian Government

New South Wales

Victoria

Queensland

South Australia

Western Australia

Tasmania

Northern Territory

Australian Capital Territory

Abbreviations

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Glossary

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