If you're parenting a child with autism or a developmental delay, the past few months have probably involved a lot of late-night reading and a lot of dread. The Thriving Kids announcement raised more questions than it answered, and most families are still waiting on the specifics. While the disability supports settle, there is something concrete you can do right now, and it sits firmly in the early childhood education and care space.
What is Thriving Kids, and when does it start?
According to the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, Thriving Kids will begin rolling out state services from 1 October 2026 and is expected to be at scale by 1 January 2028. The program will support children aged eight and under with developmental delay or autism and low to moderate support needs. It is jointly funded by the Commonwealth and the states, with $4 billion committed over five years and at least $1.4 billion going directly to state-delivered services.
Children with high support needs, including those with autism, will continue to access the NDIS subject to existing arrangements. According to the NDIS, children aged eight and under enrolled before 1 January 2028 with developmental delay or autism and low to moderate support needs will be subject to reassessment under the criteria in place before that date.
In plain English, no child currently on the NDIS will be moved across until the new Thriving Kids services are operating. The federal government has been clear that supports won't be removed before alternatives are in place. That doesn't make the worry go away, especially for families whose routines and budgets are built around current plans, but it is the official position as of early 2026.
Why this feels so unsettling
Autism advocates have been vocal that "low to moderate" risks becoming a category that minimises a child's real needs. Katie Koullas, founder of autism advocacy organisation Yellow Ladybugs and a parent of autistic daughters, told SBS News that autism is lifelong and that there is no growing out of it, warning that suggesting otherwise denies reality and risks stripping people of the supports they need to thrive.
The bigger problem is that the architecture of Thriving Kids is still being designed. Families don't yet know what the assessment process will look like, which providers will deliver services, or how supports will move when families move between states. If you're feeling hypervigilant about every announcement, that's a reasonable response to a system in flux.
What you can control: choosing a safer childcare service
While the disability supports picture settles, the National Quality Framework reforms landing across 2026 give parents real, checkable ground to stand on. Three changes in particular shift the balance toward families.
National Early Childhood Worker Register
According to ACECQA, the National Early Childhood Worker Register commences 27 February 2026 and applies to every approved education and care service in Australia, with Western Australia coming on board after that date. Approved providers must enter their current workforce within a one-month transition period and update the Register within 14 days of any staff change after that. The Register captures identity, qualifications, Working with Children Checks, and background checks for everyone employed or engaged at a service, including casuals, agency staff, students, and volunteers.
For parents, this means regulatory authorities have a clear, national view of who is working with children, which makes it much harder for someone with a prohibition notice or an invalid clearance to slip between states or services unnoticed.
Mandatory national child safety training
A new national child safety training package, developed by the Australian Centre for Child Protection at the University of South Australia, is mandatory for every person working or volunteering in a regulated education and care service. According to ACECQA, the training must be completed by late August 2026, and it is an offence not to comply, with penalties applying. The training covers child safe practices, recognising signs of abuse and neglect, and meeting legal obligations.
Worth asking your service: has every educator, including casuals and students, started the training, and what is your completion timeline?
24-hour incident reporting
Since 1 September 2025, the timeframe for approved providers to notify the regulatory authority of any allegation or incident of physical or sexual abuse has dropped from seven days to 24 hours. Quality Areas 2 and 7 of the National Quality Standard were also refined from 1 January 2026, with Element 2.2.3 renamed Child Safety and Protection to sharpen the focus on identifying and responding to children at risk.
How to check a service's quality rating before you enrol
StartingBlocks.gov.au is the federal government's free site for families to find and compare every regulated childcare service in Australia. You can search by suburb, see the service's overall quality rating across the seven NQF Quality Areas, check fees and inclusions, and see any vacancies. A service rated Working Towards NQS is not yet meeting the standard in one or more areas, and a service rated Meeting NQS or higher is.
When you tour a service, treat the quality rating as a starting point rather than a verdict. Ask which areas they were marked down in, what they have done to improve, and how they are preparing for the 2026 reforms. A confident service will give you a clear answer, and a defensive one tells you what you need to know.
Where to from here
Care for Kids lists every childcare service across Australia and includes filters for special needs and inclusion support. If your child has a current NDIS plan or an early intervention placement, you can shortlist services that already have experience delivering inclusion support and contact them directly to ask how they would adjust the program for your child. The Cost of Care Calculator and Child Care Subsidy Calculator can also help you plan for any gap supports you may need to fund yourself during the Thriving Kids transition.
You cannot control the policy but you can control which service holds your child each day, and how rigorously you vet them.
FAQs
When will my child be moved off the NDIS to Thriving Kids?
No child will be moved off the NDIS until Thriving Kids services are operating in their state. The rollout begins from 1 October 2026 and is expected to be at full scale by 1 January 2028. Children with high support needs, including those with autism, will continue to access the NDIS under existing arrangements.
What does "low to moderate support needs" mean?
The Australian Government has not yet released the final assessment criteria. Thriving Kids will apply to children aged eight and under with developmental delay or autism, where the supports needed sit below the threshold for ongoing NDIS access. The detail of how this is assessed is still being designed and is one of the main reasons families are anxious.
What is the National Early Childhood Worker Register?
According to ACECQA, the Register commences 27 February 2026 and includes information about every educator, teacher, casual, student, volunteer, and non-educator staff member working at an approved service. It gives regulatory authorities a clear national view of the early childhood workforce and helps stop unsuitable workers moving between services or states.
How do I check a childcare service's quality rating?
Use StartingBlocks.gov.au to search for a service and see its rating across the seven NQF Quality Areas. Ratings range from Significant Improvement Required through Working Towards NQS, Meeting NQS, Exceeding NQS, and Excellent. Treat the rating as a starting point and ask the service directly about any improvements made since their last assessment.
Where do I report a concern about a childcare service?
Contact your state or territory regulatory authority directly. Allegations or incidents of physical or sexual abuse must be reported to the regulatory authority by the service within 24 hours, and you can also report concerns yourself at any time.
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