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Enhancing disability inclusion in Victorian kindergartens

Find out how we are promoting inclusive services for children with disability, complex medical need or development delay.

A male kindergarten teacher sits with a kinder student at a desk. The kinder student is writing in a booklet.

Ensuring our early childhood services are inclusive for all children and families is a priority for the department.

We are committed to ensuring all children can participate in and benefit from high-quality early childhood education. We also recognise the benefits for all children when they are learning alongside peers with diverse abilities and backgrounds.

In 2024, we have a range of activities planned to support this priority, and we’re pleased to share an update on these plans below.

National Disability Insurance Scheme review

The Commonwealth Government recently released a review into the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). The Department of Education is working with all Victorian Government departments to consider these recommendations.

The review recommends changes to improve outcomes of children with disability, including changes to supports in and alongside early childhood education.

The Victorian Government is considering these recommendations in collaboration with the Commonwealth and other states and territories, to consider opportunities to strengthen supports for children with additional needs.

Strengthening the Kindergarten Inclusion Support program

A key project for Victoria in the year ahead is improving our Kindergarten Inclusion Support (KIS) program application approach to enhance disability inclusion.

With an aim of streamlining the application process, we will engage external experts to assess applications for inclusion supports.

We will introduce changes to this process that help services to access more timely support through a staged approach, with the full change set for implementation in 2025.

We will share further updates with you about this project later in 2024.

Preschool Field Officer program expansion

We will expand the Preschool Field Officer program (PSFO) to meet the demand for support in areas that have seen major growth in 4-year-old kinder enrolments.

The program provides educators and teachers access to tailored support, improving their skills and confidence in providing inclusive programs that are responsive to the needs of all children.

Further funding has been allocated to 10 providers to deliver the program to 29 local government areas in 2024, based on the number of 4-year-old kinder enrolments.

For information about who has received additional funding, refer to the Preschool Field Officer program (PSFO) website or contact the department by email: preschool.fieldofficer@education.vic.gov.au

Disability Inclusion Research in Kindergartens

The department is conducting research into best practice assessment methods and service responses to enable greater inclusion of children with additional needs in kindergartens.

The two-year research will inform advice provided to the government about opportunities to improve support for children with additional needs in the medium to long term.

There are two key activities in 2024:

  1. A disability inclusion needs survey to understand the number and distribution of children with additional needs in state-funded kindergarten programs.
  1. Designing and testing a new Kindergarten Inclusion Support Profile (KIS Profile) to assess a child’s functional strengths and identify adjustments or resources that may be required to ensure inclusive learning and participation among their peers.

Early childhood education and care services with funded kindergarten programs will be invited to participate in the survey and testing of the new KIS Profile.

There will be no changes to current kindergarten inclusion support programs during this research period. Services participating in the research can apply through the process for the Preschool Field Officer program, Kindergarten Inclusion Support program and Kindergarten Inclusion Support Specialised Equipment Program.

Services may contact the Inclusion Policy and Reform team for advice by emailing: EC.Inclusion.Research@education.vic.gov.au(opens in a new window).

Find out more

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