2026 Preschool Census

The NSW Department of Education will be undertaking the Annual Preschool Census from 20 July to 28 August 2026. The representative period will be 3 August to 14 August 2026.

The purpose of the Census is to provide data for government reporting and to inform your funding levels for 2027.

All community and mobile preschools are required to complete the 2026 Annual Preschool Census in the Early Childhood Contract Management System (ECCMS).

While some services may already be providing similar information through the Preschool Reform Agreement (PRA) Term 2 Attendance Data Collection in the Digital Hub, the Census is a separate mandatory collection that must be completed in ECCMS.

The PRA Term 2 Data Collection records Term 2 attendance and enrolments. The Census collects current service, enrolment and child-level data used for funding and mandatory reporting, including to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Census data is used to determine funding for your service and others, it is important that all information submitted is accurate, complete, and meets funding and reporting requirements.

What’s changing this year

There will be minor changes to response fields in 2026.

Preparing for the Census

• Ensure that your Early Childhood Contract Management System (ECCMS) SP-Admin account holder can log in to ECCMS successfully using their myID.
• Review the following pages within ECCMS:
  • Main Service Provider page - ensure that service details and contacts are up to date on the Main Details tab, Contacts and Address tabs.
  • Each Funding Specification page - ensure that details and contacts are up to date on the Main, Contacts and Address tabs.
• Confirm that you have collected supporting documentation from families regarding eligibility for equity loadings to ensure your Start Strong funding is calculated appropriately. For more information on equity loadings see Appendix 1.1 Program Payment in the program guidelines.
• Mobile preschools funded under the Mobile Preschool Funding program can find details on equity enrolments in Appendix 1 of the program guidelines.

Completing consent forms

Community preschools and mobile preschools need to complete 2 types of consent forms, one for each staff member (PDF 150 KB) and one for each child (PDF 134 KB) upon enrolment.

Consent forms allow for the use and disclosure of personal information to support the department’s governmental functions. This may include monitoring the funding programs and reporting purposes. Services are advised to renew the consent form every year a child attends.

During the Census

During the Census you will need to:

• Enter enrolment data from the representative fortnight which runs from 3 August to 14 August 2026.
• Ensure your service's data is accurate and submitted by 28 August 2026.

Download the Quick Reference Guide (PDF 1036 KB), or access the web version of the Quick Reference Guide, for step by step instructions on completing the Census.

How to get help

Entering data into ECCMS

Read the tips in:

• ECCMS - tool tips and help text can be assessed in ECCMS by either hovering over or clicking on the relevant '?'.
• Annual Preschool Census - Quick Reference Guide (PDF 1036 KB).
• Online version of the Quick Reference Guide

Contact our Information and Enquiries team by:

• calling 1800 619 113
  
• emailing ececcollection@det.nsw.edu.au.

Logging into ECCMS and funding queries

Contact our Information and Enquiries team by:

• calling 1800 619 113
  
• emailing ecec.funding@det.nsw.edu.au.

Completion of Preschool Reform Agreement (PRA) data submission does not replace the requirement to submit the Annual Preschool Census. All services must ensure census data is submitted as per the required timeline.