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Nine (9) new ECEC services at NSW public schools funded by the Federal Government

May 22nd, 2026 Latest News

Federal Ministers the Hon Jason Clare MP, Senator the Hon Jess Walsh and NSW Deputy Premier the Hon Prue Car MP announced on 21 May 2026 of the Federal Government's $59m funding the creation of 6+3 new early childhood education and care services that will have a projected 400 places:


  • 6 new early learning services to be co-located at:

    • Muswellbrook Public School

    • Cessnock East Public School

    • Eden Public School

    • Chester Hill North Public School

    • Wattawa Heights Public School

    • Inverell Public School

  • 3 new early learning services to be co-located at

    • the new Calderwood Public School

    • the new West Dapto Public School

    • the new Googong Public School

ACA NSW can confirm that these 9 new services are in addition to the NSW Government’s $769.3m plans for 100 new preschools at public schools that are to be created by March 2027.


What were not clear are:


  1. whether these nine new early childhood education and care services:

    1. are to be preschools only (ie operating 40 weeks per year and typically between school hours); or

    2. are to be preschools with wraparound before-and-after-school-care; or

    3. are to be long daycare services (ie operating 50+ weeks per year); and

  2. how these sites/public schools were chosen and the number of places determined (ie how was oversupply or undersupply considered)? Or which of these sites were chosen due to deficiencies in children’s outcomes (eg as expressed in the Australian Early Development Censuses’ (AEDCs) results) or a combination of those?

ACA NSW has contacted the Ministers' Offices as well as the Federal Department of Education and are awaiting their/its response.


The $59m funding allocation is part of the Federal Government's Building Early Education Fund (BEEF). The BEEF has a total of $1b, of $500 million is to build and expand ECEC services and another $500 million is for the Federal Government to build, own and lease ECEC services.


For any further information/clarification, members can contact the ACA NSW team via 1300 556 330 or nsw@childcarealliance.org.au.


PUBLISHED: 22 MAY 2026