Kindergarten funding rates

Victorian government-funded kindergarten providers can find which funding rates are applicable to their services in the table below.

The same rates apply to funded three-year-old and four-year-old enrolments in programs of 15 hours per week. For services delivering a funded Three-Year-Old Kindergarten program less than 15 hours, child level funding will be provided on a prorated basis. Services in a 2025 Pre-Prep rollout area have received sperate advice on funding settings.

More information about each funding stream, including eligibility and how payments are made is available in the Kindergarten Funding Guide(opens in a new window).

Table 1 – Core funding rates

	2025 rate
Per capita – Services not operating under the Early Childhood Enterprise Agreements (EA)
Standard per capita	$3,831
Rural per capita*	$4,737
Independent schools Standard**	$3,831
Independent schools Type 1**	$672
Independent schools Type 2**	$2,181
Per capita – Services operating under the Early Childhood Enterprise Agreements (EA) (or approved equivalent agreement)***
EA Standard per capita	$4,339
EA Rural per capita*	$5,366
Early Start Kindergarten (ESK) and Access to Early Learning****
ESK Standard	$6,966
ESK Rural	$7,993

*All rural services with 18 or fewer enrolments will receive a base funding amount that is equivalent to 18 enrolments at the relevant rural per capita rate and Free Kinder rate. Rural services with 19 or more enrolments will receive the relevant rural per capita rate for all enrolments up to 45 children, and where applicable, the standard per capita rate for the 46th enrolment and above.
**Non-government school managed kindergarten services in the Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) 1, 2 and 3 will receive the standard per capita rate.
***Services that are signatories to the Early Childhood Enterprise Agreements are services that operate under the Victorian Early Childhood Teachers' and Educators' Agreement (VECTEA) or the Early Education Employees' Agreement (EEEA) or an approved equivalent agreement.
**** Children funded under ESK/AEL receive this funding in place of per capita. From 2023, Free Kinder funding is included in the ESK/AEL funding rates. ESK/AEL enrolments at services that participate in Free Kinder will not be paid Free Kinder funding in addition to the ESK/AEL funding.

Table 2 – Free Kinder and other funding to support a free program

	2025 rate Services that offer Free Kinder	2025 rate Services that do not offer Free Kinder
Free Kinder
Sessional services	$2,627	N/A
Long Day Care services	$2,101	N/A
Per capita top-up for Type 1 independent school sessional programs (paid in addition to $2,626 Free Kinder rate)	$3,159	N/A
Per capita top-up for Type 2 independent school sessional programs (paid in addition to $2,626 Free Kinder rate)	$1,650	N/A
Kindergarten Fee Subsidy
KFS	NA	$2,135
Early Start Kindergarten Extension
ESK Extension	N/A	$2,135

These rates apply to children receiving per capita funding, please refer to Table 1 for funding rates for children eligible for ESK/AEL.

Please see the kindergarten funding guide for further information including eligibility requirements.

Table 3 – Supplementary funding

	2025 rate
Ratio Supplement^
Ratio supplement – Standard	$571
Ratio supplement – Early Start Kindergarten	$571
Early Childhood Teacher Supplement^^
Standard rate – Level 2.5	$282
Standard rate – Level 3.1	$494
Standard rate – Level 3.2 to 3.6	$705
Rural rate – Level 2.5	$349
Rural rate – Level 3.1	$609
Rural rate – Levels 3.2 to 3.6	$874
Pre-Purchased Places^^^
Pre-Purchased Places	$6,966
Travel allowance^^^^	$0.99/km

Ratio supplement funding is paid per child to any sessional service eligible for standard or rural per capita funding offering programs with groups of 23 or more at the required educator-child ratio of 1:11.
^^The ECTS is available to services that employ eligible teachers under the Victorian Early Childhood Teacher and Educator Agreement (VECTEA) 2020 or the Early Education Employees Agreement (EEEA) 2020 (or an Agreement with an equivalent salary structure and employment conditions).
^^^Free Kinder funding is included in the Pre-Purchased Places (PPP) funding rate. Enrolments that fill PPPs at services that participate in Free Kinder will not be paid Free Kinder funding in addition to the PPP funding rates.
^^^^Travel allowance is only available for services where at least one of the services is funded at the rural rate. The allowance is paid per kilometre. Please see the kindergarten funding guide(opens in a new window) for eligibility and payment details.

Table 4 – Early Years Management

	January-December 2025
Annual grant – sessional kindergarten services	$18,963
Annual grant – long day care services*	$11,751
Annual grant: sessional kindergarten services in 2025 Pre-Prep rollout area	$28,444
Additional support loading (for sessional services in rural and/or disadvantaged services)	$3,782
Start-up grant – sessional kindergarten services	$18,963
Start-up grant – long day care services*	$11,751
Transition grant - sessional kindergarten services	$18,963
Transition grant - long day care services*	$11,751
New provider grant**	Up to $78,797

Documents

Early childhood

Updated 31 October 2024