Thousands of three-year-olds across South Australia will begin preschool in 2026, as the Malinauskas Government presses ahead with its early childhood reforms. Over 200 long day care services and nearly 50 government preschools have been named as partners for the first wave of this rollout, designed to offer children an extra year of teacher-led, play-based learning before they start school.
The expansion will see more than 6,000 children access preschool programs from next year. It’s part of a wider ambition to give all South Australian kids access to 15 hours a week of preschool from age three by the year 2032.
The program sits at the heart of the $1.9 billion “Flying Start” initiative, which Premier Peter Malinauskas calls the state’s most ambitious early childhood reform in a generation.
“This is a reform grounded in research,” said Malinauskas, citing the Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care, led by former Prime Minister Julia Gillard. “We know that two years of quality preschool are better than one, particularly for children in disadvantaged and low socio-economic areas.”
The logic is clear: the earlier you start, the better your chances. National data backs this up. According to the Australian Early Development Census, nearly one in four South Australian children start school with some form of developmental vulnerability. The target is to bring that figure down from 23.8 per cent to 15 per cent within 20 years—below the national average of 22 per cent.
Education Minister Blair Boyer says three-year-old preschool is the most effective lever available to hit that target. “The response from providers has been overwhelmingly positive,” he said. “Hundreds of services have stepped forward to express their interest in partnering with us.”
That enthusiasm prompted the Government to accelerate the timeline. The 2025-26 State Budget includes an extra $27.7 million to bring forward the rollout by 12 months and create more than 2,000 additional places from 2026.
Providers were selected based on location, quality, and readiness to deliver a teacher-led program. That includes metro, regional, and remote services. The idea is to ensure a fair geographic spread while focusing on communities where early intervention is most needed.
At full pace, the program will offer up to 600 hours of preschool each year to every three-year-old in the state. But it won’t happen all at once. Services will be added gradually until universal access is achieved. That gives the government time to build out infrastructure, train more early childhood educators, and make sure quality doesn’t slip.
The rollout is backed by extra workforce funding and a new scheme called Preschool Boost, which gives services access to allied health and other specialist support to tackle developmental delays early.
Families can check their eligibility and see which services are taking part by visiting www.flyingstart.sa.gov.au.
The reform will be watched closely by other states. In Australia, preschool offerings vary widely by jurisdiction. Victoria, for instance, has already moved to provide free kindergarten for three-year-olds, and New South Wales has announced similar plans. But the speed and structure of implementation differ across the country.
For South Australia, it’s a chance to close the gap in early development and possibly leap ahead. But while the policy has broad support, its success will depend on execution—particularly in workforce recruitment, especially in rural and remote communities where staff shortages are already acute.
The Government insists it’s up to the task. “There is no bigger reform in improving the long-term trajectory of our state, socially and economically,” said Malinauskas.
Whether the benefits show up in future NAPLAN results, school attendance, or social wellbeing, the early years will now start earlier for many South Australian children. And for a state with ambitious goals, that might just be the most realistic way to get there.
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