Right now, children with disability are not as safe, heard, or included in early learning services as their non-disabled peers.
That’s why CYDA is calling for the National Quality Standard (NQS), which sets the benchmark for settings like childcare and preschool, to include stronger protections and inclusion.
In our submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry into the Quality and Safety of Australia’s Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) System, we urged the government to:
- Embed disability-inclusive child safety in the NQS
- Provide disability-specific training for regulators and providers
- Create consistent national assessment standaards for inclusion
- Ensure public reporting on how services are performing
It is important for a universal safety and inclusion framework to be included across all ECEC services, not just those funded by the NDIS, so that every child has access to safe, inclusive, high-quality education and care.
By investing in a skilled, stable, and disability-competent workforce and improving transparency through better data, Australia can build an early learning system where every child with disability is safe, supported, and able to thrive.
You can download the PDF and Word versions of our full submission using the buttons above.