Child Care Subsidy and Free Kinder in Australia: The Complete 2026 Guide for Every State

The federal Child Care Subsidy (CCS) pays up to 90% of approved child care fees for families earning up to $88,520, tapering to nothing at $538,520. With two or more children aged 5 or under in care, each younger one can get up to 95%. Since January 2026 every eligible family gets at least 72 subsidised hours a fortnight. On top of that, every state and territory funds kinder or preschool for the year before school, many make it free or heavily discounted, and several now help 3-year-olds too. Here is how it all fits together, and how to make sure you actually receive it.

Figures for the 2026–27 financial year and the 2026 kinder year, checked on the Australian Government's and each state's own websites on 19 September 2026. Federal CCS rates and caps are indexed each July, and state kinder amounts are set for each calendar year, so check before you rely on them.

Key takeaways

• CCS covers up to 90% of fees at approved centres, family day care and outside school hours care, up to an hourly cap ($15.19 for children below school age in centre-based care).
• With two or more children aged 5 or under in care, each younger one can get up to 95% if family income is under $370,727, and you don't need to apply for it; Services Australia works it out.
• Everyone gets at least 72 subsidised hours a fortnight (the 3 Day Guarantee), or 100 hours if you (and your partner, if you have one) each do more than 48 hours a fortnight of recognised activity such as paid work or study.
• Confirm your income every year. If you don't, your CCS drops to 0% and isn't back-paid. You have until 30 June 2027 to confirm 2025–26 income.
• Every state adds kinder or preschool help. Victoria and Queensland make 15 hours a week of kinder free or heavily discounted at participating services, including inside long day care, and NSW gives up to $4,456 a year in fee relief.
• "Kindergarten" means different things by state. In NSW and the ACT it is the first year of school; in WA and Tasmania it is the year before.

Part 1: The Child Care Subsidy

Who can get it

You can claim CCS if you:

• care for your child at least 2 nights a fortnight (or 14% of the time),
• pay fees for care at an approved service — centre-based day care, family day care, outside school hours care or in home care,
• meet the residence rules (you or your partner live in Australia and are a citizen, permanent resident or hold certain visas).

Your child must be 13 or under and not yet in secondary school (older children with a disability may qualify by exemption), and must meet the immunisation requirements. If they stop meeting them, you have 63 days to catch up before the subsidy stops.

How much you get

The percentage depends on your family's combined income for the financial year:

The fall is pro-rata, not in whole steps. Services Australia's own examples: $95,000 gets 88.70%, $130,000 gets 81.70%, and $400,000 gets 27.70%.

The higher rate for a second child

If you have more than one child aged 5 or under in care and your family income is under $370,727, your eldest gets the standard rate and each younger one gets a higher rate:

The children don't need to attend the same service, and you don't apply — it's worked out automatically. The higher rate doesn't apply to in home care.

Watch the cliff at $370,727: at that income the higher rate stops altogether, so a second child's subsidy drops from 50% to the standard rate of about 33.56%. It's the sudden drop in the chart above.

The hourly cap

CCS is paid on each hour of care, up to a cap:

These apply from 6 July 2026. If your centre charges more per hour than the cap, the difference is yours to pay in full.

What a day of care really costs you

This is the number parents actually want. Take a $150, 10-hour day in long day care ($15 an hour, under the cap):

Now the cap. If the same 10-hour day costs $180 ($18 an hour), a family on the 90% rate gets 90% of the $15.19 cap, not of the fee: about $136.71 of subsidy, leaving about $43 to pay, instead of the $18 you'd pay if the whole fee were subsidised. When you compare centres, compare the hourly fee against the cap, not just the daily price.

These are our worked examples using the published 2026–27 rates and caps. Your own figure also depends on the exact session length and the 5% withholding below.

The 3 Day Guarantee: how many hours are subsidised

Since 5 January 2026, every eligible family gets at least 72 hours of subsidised care a fortnight — three days a week — regardless of work or study. The old activity test is gone.

You can get 100 hours a fortnight if you (and your partner, if you have one) each do more than 48 hours of recognised activity a fortnight, such as paid work, study or training (volunteering or looking for work on its own counts only up to 16 hours), if you care for an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander child, if you have an exemption, or if you receive certain Additional Child Care Subsidy payments. Families already on CCS don't need to do anything for the 72 hours. A place at a centre isn't guaranteed, though; only the subsidy is.

The trap: confirm your income every year

Services Australia holds back 5% of your subsidy each fortnight to reduce the risk of an overpayment. After 30 June, it balances your CCS against your actual income, from mid-August onwards.

To be balanced, you and your partner must confirm your income — by lodging a tax return, or telling Services Australia you don't need to lodge one. For 2025–26 CCS the deadline is 30 June 2027. If you miss it, Services Australia says your CCS will stop, reducing to 0% from 5 July 2027, and you'll pay full fees with no back pay for that period. After two years, your CCS for that year is cancelled and you may have to repay it.

If you estimated your income too low, the overpayment comes out of the withheld 5% first. If you estimated too high, you get the difference back, including the withheld amount.

Additional Child Care Subsidy (ACCS): extra help in hard times

ACCS pays up to 100% of fees (up to 120% of the hourly cap), usually for up to 100 hours a fortnight, in these situations:

• Child wellbeing, where a child is at risk of harm. The centre applies, not the family.
• Grandparents who are the main carers (at least 65% of the time) and receive income support.
• Temporary financial hardship, for up to 13 weeks per event.
• Transition to work, at up to 95% of fees, for families moving from income support into work, study or training, with income under $88,520. Your subsidised hours depend on how much of that activity you do.

How to claim

1. Sign in to myGov and your linked Centrelink online account.
2. Choose Make a claim, then Families, then Apply for Family Assistance Payments.
3. Once your centre sends the enrolment details, confirm your child's enrolment online. They must match your written arrangement with the centre.

Claim before care starts, or as soon as you enrol. A claim can only be backdated 28 days.

Part 2: Free and subsidised kinder and preschool, state by state

The year before school is where state governments add the most. Where a state pays for kinder inside long day care (NSW, Victoria and Queensland for 4-year-olds; the ACT and Tasmania for some 3-year-olds), the help stacks on top of the CCS: the CCS comes off first, then the state's amount.

New South Wales

• Public preschools attached to public schools charge no fees for the year before school. They run 6-hour days on school days, usually for about 15 hours a week. A further 100 are due to be fully operating by early 2027.
• Community and mobile preschools: Start Strong fee relief of up to $4,456 a year (maximum rate) or up to $3,565, for children aged 3 to 5. CCS doesn't apply there.
• Long day care preschool programs: up to $2,563 a year for 4-year-olds and $769 for 3-year-olds at the maximum rate, applied after CCS.
• From 1 January 2027, new programs replace Start Strong, and 3- and 4-year-olds at community preschools will be funded at the same rate. The 2027 amounts haven't been published yet, but the government says not-for-profit preschools will be funded to run fee-free or low-cost, with any out-of-pocket fees capped at the preschool's current rate or $20 a day. A new Fee Relief for Long Day Care program will also increase fee relief in long day care.

Victoria

• Free Kinder is for every family at participating services (a few kinders opt out and charge fees): no concession card or CCS eligibility needed. Sessional kinder has no compulsory out-of-pocket fees.
• In long day care, the centre applies a $2,101 Free Kinder offset a year for 15 hours, after CCS. Three-year-olds get 5 to 15 hours, rising to 15 hours by 2029.
• Pre-Prep extends 4-year-old kinder to up to 30 hours a week. It is rolling out by council area, and Aboriginal children, refugee and asylum-seeker children, and children who have had contact with Child Protection already get 16 to 25 hours anywhere in the state. Twelve more regional councils join in 2027, and the full rollout reaches the whole state in 2036.

Queensland

• Free Kindy gives 4-year-olds 15 hours a week for 40 weeks free, at participating sessional kindergartens and long day care centres.
• In long day care, the government pays 100% of the gap fee after CCS for the approved kindy program. You pay only for extra hours, where CCS can still help.
• It continues in 2027 and beyond.
• For 3-year-olds, Queensland has no state-funded kindy. A 3-year-old can take a spare kindy place only at full fees, so long day care with the CCS is the usual route.

Western Australia

• Kindergarten is free at public schools for 4-year-olds, at least 15 hours a week, usually five days a fortnight, the year before Pre-primary.
• Free full-time kindergarten is a pilot at 5 public schools in 2026, rising to 10 in Term 1 2027.
• In long day care, use the CCS. WA's kindy money goes to school kindergarten, not to fees at childcare centres.
• For 3-year-olds, the CCS in long day care is the main help. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families can also join KindiLink, free play-and-learn sessions for 6 hours a week with a parent or carer, at 38 public schools.

South Australia

• Every child has a guarantee of a government preschool place the year before school, typically 15 hours a week. It isn't necessarily free: preschools can ask families to contribute to costs, and amounts vary, so ask yours.
• 3-year-old preschool is rolling out by region through the Flying Start program, with more areas in 2027 and statewide by 2032. It isn't necessarily free: providers set their own fees, and CCS applies in long day care.

Tasmania

• Kindergarten runs at government schools for 4-year-olds, at least 15 hours a week. There are no fees, but schools charge levies, which are waived for families eligible for the Student Assistance Scheme. Long day care centres don't run funded kinder, so there the CCS is your help.
• Working Together gives eligible 3-year-olds 20 free hours a week in long day care. You apply online, and your child must meet one of the criteria, such as a Health Care Card.

ACT

• 4-year-old preschool is free for up to 15 hours a week at public preschools, and an offer is guaranteed if you apply. The free hours don't apply in long day care, where the CCS is your help.
• 3-year-olds can get up to 300 free hours a year at partner long day care services (not public preschools). Extra hours can use CCS. A targeted program gives vulnerable 3-year-olds two free days a week.

Northern Territory

• Government preschool offers about 15 hours a week for children who turn 4 by 30 June. In very remote areas children can start at 3. If your child goes to long day care instead, the CCS applies.

"Kindergarten" means different things in different states

Moving interstate, or comparing notes with friends, is where the confusion starts. In NSW and the ACT, "Kindergarten" is the first year of primary school. In WA and Tasmania it is the year before school, usually run inside a government primary school. Victoria's "kinder" and Queensland's "kindy" also mean the year (or two) before school.

This shows up in our own data. In our directory, 511 of 727 government schools in WA and 125 of 187 in Tasmania list a kindergarten — because that's where those states run the pre-school year. You can browse WA schools and Tasmanian schools to see which ones near you offer it.

Frequently asked questions

How much Child Care Subsidy will I get?

Up to 90% of fees if your family earns $88,520 or less, falling by 1% for every $5,000 above that and reaching 0% at $538,520. With two or more children aged 5 or under in care, each younger one can get up to 95%. The subsidy applies up to an hourly cap of $15.19 for children below school age in centre-based care.

Do I need to work to get the Child Care Subsidy?

Not any more. Since 5 January 2026, every eligible family gets at least 72 subsidised hours a fortnight. If you (and your partner, if you have one) each do more than 48 hours a fortnight of recognised activity such as paid work or study, you can get 100 hours.

What happens if I don't lodge my tax return?

Services Australia needs you and your partner to confirm your income within a year of the financial year ending. For 2025–26 CCS, that is 30 June 2027. If you don't, your CCS drops to 0% from 5 July 2027, isn't back-paid, and can later be cancelled and recovered.

Is kinder free in Australia?

In several states, for the year before school: Victoria's Free Kinder and Queensland's Free Kindy (at participating services), NSW public preschools, WA public-school kindergarten and the ACT's public preschools are free for the program hours. Other states fund kinder at government schools or preschools but may charge fees or levies.

Can I get free kinder in long day care?

Often. Victoria applies a $2,101 offset, Queensland pays the full gap fee after CCS for the kindy program, NSW gives up to $2,563 a year, and the ACT funds up to 300 free hours for 3-year-olds, all inside long day care.

Related reading

• School starting age in every state, with 2027 cut-off dates
• Starting school in 2027: a 12-month countdown
• Help with school costs in every state

Sources: Department of Education, "Child Care Subsidy" and "3 Day Guarantee" (last modified 1 September and 25 August 2026); Services Australia pages on income, the higher rate, balancing and time limits (updated 2026); Department of Education ACCS pages; NSW Department of Education (Start Strong, public preschools); vic.gov.au (Free Kinder, Pre-Prep); Queensland Department of Education (Free Kindy); WA Department of Education; Department for Education SA and earlychildhood.sa.gov.au; Tasmanian Department for Education, Children and Young People; ACT Government; NT Government. All read 19 September 2026.