Kindergarten Central Registration and Enrolment Guideline1

2024

Council respectfully acknowledges and recognises Wurundjeri and Bunurong peoples as the

Traditional Custodians of this land and pays respect to their Elders past, present and future.

Council acknowledges the legal responsibility to comply with the Charter of Human Rights and

Responsibilities Act 2006 and the Equal Opportunity Act 2010. The Charter of Human Rights and

Responsibilities Act 2006 is designed to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens.

The Charter gives legal protection to 20 fundamental human rights under four key values that

include freedom, respect, equality and dignity.

Kindergarten Central Registration and Enrolment Guideline3

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The purpose of this guideline document is to increase access to sessional kindergartens in

Brimbank, particularly for vulnerable and at-risk children, through a transparent,

consistent, equitable and accessible registration service.

Brimbank Council administers a Central Registration and Enrolment Scheme (CRES) for

participating sessional kindergartens within the municipality. The CRES provides a single

point for families to apply for a funded sessional kindergarten place in Brimbank. This

service is co-funded by the Victorian Government and Brimbank City Council.

The Victorian Government is reforming early childhood education to provide children with

best start in life. The reforms have included providing all Victorian children access to two

years of quality kindergarten before they start primary school and increasing kindergarten

hours for three and four year old kindergarten.

As a result of these changes, Brimbank has seen an increase in demand for sessional

kindergarten places. At some kindergartens, demand for places is higher than the number

of places available. The principles in this guideline and the priority of access criteria guides

the approach that is taken in these instances.

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This guideline describes the approach to kindergarten registration and allocation for

sessional Kindergartens that is administered by Brimbank City Council through the funded

Central Registration and Enrolment Scheme.

This guideline applies to the Kindergarten Registration function within the Early Years team

at Brimbank City Council.

It guides the work processes of the team that administers the Central Registration and

Enrolment Scheme.

This guideline does not:



Cover the enrolment process with the kindergarten service provider.

The registration process allocates children to a kindergarten. When families accept

their offer through CRES they are contacted by the kindergarten service provider to

complete the process of enrolling their child into that service for funded

kindergarten.



Provide specific information with regard to the service delivery of individual

kindergarten service providers.



Apply to funded kindergarten places for services that are not registered with

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Brimbank City Council as part of the CRES. This includes integrated kindergarten

available in long day care/childcare centres.



Manage the number of available kindergarten places within the municipality.

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For the purposes of this guideline, Council adopts the following definitions:

Central Registration and Enrolment Scheme (CRES) is a Victorian Government

funded service that provides a single point for families to apply for multiple

sessional kindergarten services within a local government area. In Brimbank,

all sessional/stand-alone kindergartens participate in this program. In Brimbank

registration for integrated kindergarten programs is not included in the CRES.

Sessional kindergarten is offered on set days and times.

Integrated kindergarten is a kindergarten program delivered within a long day

care service and sometimes called long day care kindergarten.

Early Start Kindergarten is a Victorian State Government initiative providing

free or low cost kindergarten to eligible three year old children, delivered by a

qualified teacher in a four year old program.

To be eligible for Early Start Kindergarten, a child must be three years of age or

older by 30 April in the year they will be attending kindergarten, and:



From a refugee or asylum seeker background, or



Identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, or



Your family has had contact with child protection

Registration is the initial step where parents or guardians formally express their

intention to enrol their child in a kindergarten program. It involves providing

basic information.

Facilitated by Council. Using the priority of access criteria, an offer of a place at

a one of the sessional kindergartens that is part of the CRES is made to the

parent/ guardian of a child. The offer can be accepted or declined. All accepted

offers are then forwarded to the enrolment officer at each kindergarten to

finalise enrolment.

- Allocation to a Kindergarten and group is based on family preferences

and subject to priority of access criteria. We as council do not have a say on group

allocation and hence I feel we stick to Offer in definition.

Enrolment is the subsequent step in which parents or guardians complete the

necessary paperwork to secure a spot in the kindergarten program

An early childhood educational program delivered by a qualified early childhood

teacher to children in the two years before they start school. In Victoria, a

“funded kindergarten program” follows guidelines in the Kindergarten Funding

Guide aligning with the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development

Framework

Three-Year-Old kindergarten is for children who are three years of age or older

by 30 April in the year they will be attending kindergarten. Four-Year-Old

Kindergarten is for children four years of age or older by 30 April in the year

they will be attending kindergarten.

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This guideline supports equitable access to kindergarten for Brimbank children and

families. This is in line with Brimbank City Council’s Social Justice Charter. Council

services require an equitable approach at a structural, community and individual level

and in some cases allows for preferential, additional or targeted treatment to ensure

everyone receives fair and balanced access to services, facilities and opportunities.

The guideline provides a consistency for the kindergarten registration process. It is

consistent with relevant practice standards and funding requirements. Having a public

facing document provides transparency to families who are registering for kindergarten.

The CRES aims to improve access to kindergarten for children and families in Brimbank

through provision of a centralised registration and allocation service that is free of charge.

The service includes proactive engagement, promotion and support to enable equitable

access and participation.

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The role of Council is to oversee registrations and placements of kindergarten programs in

Brimbank participating in the CRES, by coordinating:



Kindergarten registrations and placement offers for participating centres across

Brimbank.



The placement of children into sessional kindergarten programs, including

registration support and placement.



Registrations and support for enrolments of children eligible for Early Start

Kindergarten

Council will provide a transparent, equitable, fair and accessible registration service for

funded sessional kindergarten programs by:



Offering parents/guardians the opportunity to nominate their top three preferred

centres and using this, where possible, to allocate families to a preferred

kindergarten.



Provide a system of fair allocation of kindergarten places through applying the

Victorian “Priority of Access” criteria to enrolment applications, ensuring that

children experiencing vulnerability or disadvantage have priority access to

kindergarten



Providing regular, timely registration updates to participating sessional

kindergarten programs.



Collating and analysing registration data on current and projected demand for early

year’s services, to inform evaluation and future planning, including early years

infrastructure planning and investment.

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In accordance with State Government funding agreements, the following children are

eligible to attend kindergarten:



Children who are three years of age or older by 30 April in the year they are

eligible to attend three year old Kindergarten.



Children who are four years of age or older by 30 April in the year they are eligible

to attend four year old Kindergarten.



Families of children born between January and April can decide whether to enrol

their children in the year they turn three, or the following year. These decisions will

be up to the individual families, and factors that might be considered include the

individual child’s developmental and learning levels, family circumstances and

potential school starting ages.

Children are eligible to attend kindergarten in accordance with the Victorian Government

funding criteria. This includes access to Early Start Kindergarten (ESK) for:



Aboriginal and/ or Torres Strait Islander children, and children who have had

contact with Child Protection or been referred to The Orange Door (previously

ChildFIRST)



Brimbank CRES allocation priorities are aligned with those detailed in the Victorian

Government Kindergarten Guide and the DE Priority of Access Guidelines as stated

in this guideline.

The Victorian Department of Education’s priority of access criteria must be applied to all

funded kindergarten places. Anyone meeting priority 1 criteria will be prioritised.

Priority of Access Criteria can be found below:

Defined by the Victorian State Government

Department of Education (DE) as

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Children at risk of abuse or neglect, including in

Out-of Home Care



Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children



Asylum seeker and refugee children



Children with additional needs, defined as

children who:

o

require additional assistance in order to

fully participate in the kindergarten

program

o

require a combination of services which

are individually planned

o

have an identified specific

developmental delay



Children eligible for the Kindergarten Fee

Subsidy

o

a child or parent holds a Commonwealth

Health Care

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o

Card, Pensioner Concession Card,

Veteran’s Affairs Card

o

multiple birth children of triplets or

quadruplets

To support fair and equitable access to kindergarten,

children of City of Brimbank residents will also be

considered for priority of access should they have the

following risk factors of vulnerability:

o

A parent or child has a life threatening

or debilitating illness or disease

o

A parent who has a disability, diagnosed

mental illness or drug and/or alcohol

dependency

o

Court orders that limit choices for

Kindergarten

o

Risk of family violence

o

Risk of homelessness

Children who have attended a Three Year Old

program will get priority into a Four Year Old program

at the same kindergarten.

Siblings attending kindergarten in the same year

Children and their parents/guardians who live in

Brimbank within 3km of their 1st preference

Children and their parents/guardians who live in

Brimbank

No formal connection with Brimbank

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Families can register their interest by completing an EOI at any time from birth until the

year before starting kindergarten.

By completing an EOI a child and family's details are entered into Council's registration

system and will be contacted when registrations open for the year their child is to attend

kindergarten.

Registrations open in February, for the following kindergarten year and continue until

kindergarten commences.

Child registration for both three and four-year-old kindergarten can be accessed and

completed on the Brimbank City Council website anytime throughout the year. To

complete the registration form, families and/or guardians need to provide information

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about themselves and their child.

Council supports ‘High Priority’ registrations as defined by the Department of Education’s

Kindergarten Funding Guide. These registrants are defined as ‘Priority 1’ in the Brimbank

Kindergarten Registration Priority of Access Criteria.

Maternal and Child Health nurses and Supported Playgroup Facilitators will encourage and

support families to complete registrations.

Parents/guardians may nominate up to three kindergartens of their choice at the time of

registration in order of preference. Families can nominate any of the participating

sessional kindergartens in the municipality.

A change of kindergarten preference must be lodged with Council.

The CRES registration service will allocate offers of kindergarten places in an accessible

and equitable manner, based on:

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The defined Priority of Access Criteria as per the Brimbank Central Registration and

Enrolment Guideline.

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Children who attend a 3 Year Old program will be given priority to attend a 4 Year

Old Program at the same kindergarten, if places are available.

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If there is a higher demand than places available after the priority of access has

been applied, a randomised computer generated allocation system.

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On-going allocation and re-allocation of any places becoming available due to

registration cancellations and/or changes during the annual placement offers

period.

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Offers are allocated from June each year for 4 year old programs and from July for

3 year old programs, via email before the nominated kindergarten year.

Council will notify families of their allocation via letter.

If places are not available at a family's preferred listed kindergartens, parents/guardians

may accept a place at another kindergarten and still remain on the waiting list for the

preferred kindergarten. Parents/ guardians who choose to wait for their preferred

kindergarten and not take up alternative offers will remain on the waiting list.

Children on waiting lists will be allocated places once vacancies arise in accordance with

parent/guardian nominated preferences. Places are allocated in line with the Priority of

Access followed by randomised computer generated allocation. Note that children who

have been on the waiting list longer are not given preference over families who have been

on the waiting list for a shorter period of time.

Following the offer of a place by Council, the parent/guardian must notify their acceptance

to Council by the date listed on the letter.

Where no response to an offer of placement is received within the specified timeframe of

two weeks, a courtesy SMS and/or telephone call will be made prior to the child’s place

being cancelled.

Families who do not notify by the date advised or are uncontactable within the specified

timeframe will forfeit their place.

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Once families have accepted an offer, they will be contacted by the kindergarten provider

to complete the kindergarten enrolment process.

The Brimbank Kindergarten Registration procedure complies with the requirements set

out by the Victorian State Government Department of Education (DE).

Access to Kindergarten data will be restricted to the Kindergarten Registration Officers,

and other relevant Council Officers, in accordance with Council’s Information Privacy

Policy. Sharing of information will only occur with the consent of the enrolling parent or if

required by law.

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Manager Community Care is responsible for:



Ownership of the guideline



Timely review of the guideline



Informing ELT and Council of changes of significance

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Ensuring the guideline is adhered to

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Managing escalations or complaints from families

Coordinator Early Years Programs, Planning and Partnerships is responsible for:

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Supporting Kindergarten Registration staff to adhere to processes to adhere to this

guideline

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Directing resources within the Unit to support the implementation of the guideline

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Director Community Wellbeing

Manager Community Care

Community Wellbeing

Early Years

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Director Community Wellbeing

30 January 2024

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