2026 Start Strong for Long Day Care fee relief

The NSW Government provides fee relief to families of children enrolled in preschool programs in NSW long day care services.

This is in addition to Australian Government Child Care Subsidy (CCS) payments, which most families in long day care services are eligible to receive.

If your child is at least 3 years old on or before 31 July 2026, you must:

  1. Complete the attached 2026 Fee relief declaration and consent form.
  2. Return the form to us as soon as possible.
  3. You do not need to send the form to the department.

How fee relief works:

  • The funding for your child’s fee relief will be provided to our service, directly from the NSW Government, and we will pass this fee relief on to you as a reduction to your fees.

  • We will apply the Australian Government’s Child Care Subsidy first. There may still be a gap fee which is what families pay after the Child Care Subsidy has been applied. Fee relief is applied after the Child Care Subsidy to reduce the gap fee further.

  • Fee relief will be evenly allocated to you across the calendar year.

  • If your child will be attending another service that offers fee relief (another long day care service or community preschool in NSW), you will need to choose which service you would like to receive fee relief from, as you can only receive fee relief from one service. You will need to complete a Fee relief declaration and consent form at each service your child attends.

  • If you wish to change the service you receive fee relief from, you will need to fill out a new declaration form for each service your child attends.

  • There will be no impact on your Child Care Subsidy (CCS). Start Strong fee relief is not income tested and you do not need to be receiving CCS to be eligible for fee relief.

  •  There are no citizenship or residency status requirements to access fee relief.

Fee relief will be allocated to you as a flat rate across the number of weeks our service is open during the calendar year.

Bardo Road Kindergarten is open for 48 weeks a year. This means:

For families of eligible children who are at least 4 years old on or before 31 July 2026:

  • children eligible for maximum funding may receive up to $2,563 per year / $53.40 of fee relief a week.
  •  all other 4-year-old children may receive for up to $1,783 per year / $37.15 of fee relief a week.

For families of eligible children who are 3 years old and not yet 4 years old on or before 31 July 2026:

  • children eligible for maximum funding may receive up to $769 per year / $16.02 of fee relief a week or
  •  all other children may receive up to $423 / $8.81 of fee relief a week.

It is important that you complete the 2026 Fee relief declaration and consent form so that we know whether our service can apply fee relief to your child’s invoice.

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