Kindergarten allocation and offer process

The annual allocation process starts mid-July for 4-year-old-kindergarten and mid-August for 3-year-old kindergarten

* Registrations will still be accepted past 30 June and will be considered after round one allocations.

** If an offer is not accepted within the above time frame, the registration will move to the bottom of the waiting list.

Priority of access

Kindergarten places are prioritised for children through the Department of Education and Training Priority of Access criteria.

These Include:

• Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children
• Children at risk of abuse or neglect, including children in out-of-home care
• Asylum seeker and refugee children
• Children eligible for the kindergarten fee subsidy
• Children with additional needs: those who need extra assistance in order to fully participate in the kindergarten program, require a combination of services which are individually planned, or have an identified specific disability or developmental delay. This includes children who are approved for a second funded year of kindergarten.

For more information, please see Kindergarten priority of access criteria.

Darebin gives subsequent priority to the following:

• Families who are Darebin residents or whose child attends unregistered verified care in Darebin
• Had a child/sibling who participated in the same kindergarten in the past 2 years
• First preference kindergarten is closest to the child's address
• Internal long day care children (who request the kindergarten program within their current long day care service)

Kindergarten offers

Round one offers are made to families based on their first selected kindergarten, in mid-July for four-year-old and mid-August for three-year-old.

1. Families have three working days to accept or decline an offer.
2. Families who do not respond to an offer within three days, will be contacted via, phone, SMS and email. Families have an additional 24 hours to respond following this contact.
3. If no response is received after 24 hours, the offer will be withdrawn. The date of registration will be amended to the date of withdrawal.
4. An email confirmation will be sent to the families advising them, of the amended registration date.
5. Once round one offers have been finalised, kindergartens are provided a detailed list of all children.
6. Families will be contacted by individual kindergartens to begin their enrolment process. Group preferences and time tables are allocated by individual kindergartens.
7. Families should contact their allocated kindergarten by end August for 4-year-old and end September for 3-year-old if they have not heard from them.
8. Next placement offers occur as vacancies arise using all selected kindergartens.

If you would like more information on the allocation procedure, please contact the registration team on 03 8470 8825 or registration.kindergartenchildcare@darebin.vic.gov.au - 8.30am to 5pm Monday to Friday