Childcare news headlines

Two childcare workers have escaped jail time after leaving a toddler on a bus for more than five hours in the Central Queensland heat.

A young child was taken to hospital yesterday in central NSW after she was accidentally left on a minibus.

We were told it was coming, but the end of a tax policy has left many unpleasantly surprised - and the timing couldn't be worse.

Labor says the changes will leave more than one million families better off.

The commission estimates 1.2 million children under five and 655,000 children aged 6-13 attended a childcare service.

The start of the new financial year doesn't just mean tax returns – there's a range of other changes coming on July 1.

The mother claims the childcare centre told her it was an accident that occurred while her baby was briefly unsupervised.

Shares in the Indian technology company founded by her father tumbled.

A Victorian toddler has been hospitalised after she was allegedly left in a daycare bus for up to five hours.

Queensland families are eligible to save thousands of dollars in kindergarten fees, from next year.

New families and prospective parents are big winners in Labor's first federal budget in a decade, with major boosts to parental leave and childcare.

A young child survivor slept through Thailand's worst mass killing.

A former cop burst into the daycare centre, killing dozens of preschoolers and teachers in the deadliest rampage in the nation's history.

United Workers' Union (UWU) members have voted to hold a national strike on September 7 to demand the federal government provides a funding boost for early learning educators.

Australia's most generous and outward-looking generation, the Boomers, are about to be overtaken in number by Millennials, a group often unfairly derided as narcissistic and selfish.

Victoria and NSW will give every child an extra year of free schooling, under a joint plan.

Premier Dominic Perrottet claims the policy will save around $4000 for families with one child and $8000 for those with two children.

Saturday night's change in government promised to ease the pressure currently on Australian household budgets - but don't expect to find riches overnight.

It's the second such incident in less than a month, after a little girl was found wandering outside of a Werribee early learning centre on Tuesday.

Relatives of a two-year-old girl who escaped from a childcare centre in Melbourne's west, have slammed the preschool's operators.

Australia's first purpose built education hub for preschoolers is going ahead in Summer Hill, to encourage learning in science, technology, engineering and maths, known as STEM.

The federal budget next week is set to ease some of the costs Australians are facing.

Things are about to get a little bit easier, for parents with more than one child under five in child care.

There have been 104 outbreaks of viral gastroenteritis in Victorian childcare centres up to February 23 this year.

Parents of primary school students in New South Wales are being offered a back-to-school sweetener, with the state government offering vouchers to cover before- and after-school care.

At least 320 centres have been forced to shut their doors across the state after staff either contracted the virus over the holiday period or were deemed close contacts.

Authorities say the outbreak has been fueled by young children congregating again after the COVID-19 lockdown ended.

The mother of a three-year-old boy who drowned in the pool of their family home in Western Australia has warned parents to be vigilant about easily opened doors.

More than a quarter of a million Australian families will receive cheaper childcare earlier than expected after the federal government announced it will bring forward increases to the Child Care Subsidy (CCS).

Thousands of child care providers and after-school services will be eligible for new fortnightly payments to assist with the financial strain of being in a COVID-19 induced lockdown.

Melbourne parents in lockdown are facing serious restrictions on childcare, with Premier Daniel Andrews today announcing a "permit system".

The Federal Government is now allowing child care centres to waive gap fees in any area declared a COVID-19 hotspot for more than seven days.

A Western Australian daycare centre has been fined $10,000 after a toddler was left unsupervised inside a bus for almost two hours.

Parents who keep their children at home during the Greater Sydney lockdown will not be charged for childcare they are not using.

No NSW lockdown; Victoria declares Greater Sydney a red zone; New Victoria COVID-19 case linked to Sydney outbreak

Extra vaccines being sent to NSW; Sydney COVID-19 restrictions introduced after surge in cases; WA, SA, Queensland close borders to Sydney, NSW; Victoria restrictions ease

Throngs of people are turning out to get tested for COVID-19 in south-western Sydney, causing mayhem on the roads, as NSW Health confirms a toddler at a local childcare centre has contracted the virus.

Treasurer Josh Frydneberg has refused to put a timeline on a return to surplus and denied being the "best Labor treasurer since Paul Keating" after handing down a budget with a $161 billion deficit.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has unveiled a major spend on essential services amid $161 billion Budget deficit.

A man charged over a terrifying sex attack in Melbourne's north may have been living at a former family daycare, an exclusive report by 9News can reveal.

A number of dodgy childcare centres have been shut down and many others sanctioned over concerning safety breaches in Victoria.

Designed to encourage more women to return to work after having kids, the package will slash out-of-pocket costs for working families with young children.

Gastro outbreaks are four times higher than average in Victorian childcare centres with almost 400 cases reported just this year.

More than 40 childcare centres in Western Australia have been sanctioned for serious safety breaches.

If we want to fix the gender pay gap, we need to look at childcare, Deborah Knight writes.

Victorian childcare centres have been hit by rapidly spreading gastro outbreaks prompting an official health alert.

A preschool-aged child has died after they were found unresponsive in a running washing machine at a house in Christchurch.

Samantha Bridge was picking up her son Abel, from the Dinky Di Childcare Centre at Lake Haven on the Central Coast, when employees at the centre were unable to find the toddler.

A child's coronavirus case diagnosed overseas, two days after they attended a childcare centre in Melbourne's inner south-east, is suspected to be a false positive.

Four people have been charged after US police found a four-year-old caged and unresponsive in Missouri.