A Sunbury kindergarten is welcoming the state government’s free kinder program, which reimburses services up to $2500 per child per year while making it more affordable for families.
St Andrews Uniting Kindergarten in Sunbury is one of the 99 per cent of kinders in Hume opting into the program, and nominated supervisor Leticia McBean said it was a win-win for the sessional service.
“I think obviously it will be a really good advantage for families to have free kinder, because long day care is really expensive,” she said.
“This will provide families the opportunity to have a really good quality education for their children.”
Across the state, 95 per cent of services and 93 per cent of sessional services have opted into the program so far.
“For some families they might have the opportunity to go back to work,” Ms McBean said.
“Some mums weigh up the option, do I pay expensive childcare fees or be a stay at home mum and keep my kids at home, because the amount they earn is more or less the same as they pay for childcare.”
She said the service was already seeing an influx of enrolments for 2023 and the government reimbursement would be beneficial to the service.
“Obviously it would provide free education, but we’ll also get additional funding per child to provide children with good resources, to provide a high quality day to day program based on their interests and their abilities,” she said.
The Best Start Best Life program is part of the state government’s $9 billion commitment to expand kindergarten programs across the state.
From next year, free kinder will be available for all three and four year old children at participating services, “in both standalone (sessional) services and long day care (childcare) settings – a saving of up to $2,500 per child, every year,” the government said.
