Seq No. Metadata item Obligation Max occurs - Address—address line, text X[X(179)] DSS specific information:
In the National Preschool Attendance Collection, this item should be collected twice: once for the child and once for the early childhood education and care service.
Child This item should be reported for the usual residence of the child’s parent or guardian. Do not report the address line of a post office box or other non-residential address of the child’s parent or guardian.
Early childhood education and care service This item should be reported for the physical location at which the early childhood education program is delivered. If the early childhood education program is received in a home-based setting (i.e., via distance education programs such as school of the air or e-Kindy), then the location of the service provider delivering the program should be used for the address, rather than the home-based setting.
Mandatory 2 - Address—Australian postcode, code (Postcode datafile) NNNN DSS specific information:
In the National Preschool Attendance Collection, this item should be collected twice: once for the child and once for the early childhood education and care service.
Child This item should be reported for the usual residence of the child’s parent or guardian. Do not report the post office box postcode or other non-residential address of the child’s parent or guardian.
Early childhood education and care service This item should be reported for the physical location at which the early childhood education program is delivered. If the early childhood education program is received in a home-based setting (i.e., via distance education programs such as school of the air or e-Kindy), then the location of the service provider delivering the program should be used for the address, rather than the home-based setting.
Mandatory 2 - Address—Australian state/territory identifier, code N DSS specific information:
In the National Preschool Attendance Collection, this item should be collected twice: once for the child and once for the early childhood education and care service.
Child This item should be reported for the state or territory of the child’s parent or guardian. Do not report the address line of a post office box or other non-residential address of the child’s parent or guardian.
Early childhood education and care service This item should be reported for the state or territory in which the early childhood education program is delivered. If the early childhood education program is received in a home-based setting (i.e., via distance education programs such as school of the air or e-Kindy), then the location of the service provider delivering the program should be used for the address, rather than the home-based setting.
Mandatory 2 - Address—statistical area, level 1 (SA1) code (ASGS Edition 3) N(11) DSS specific information:
In the National Preschool Attendance Collection, this item should be collected twice: once for the child and once for the early childhood education and care service.
Child This item should be reported for the usual residence of the child’s parent or guardian. Do not report the Statistical Area Level 1 based on/according to post office box, suburb/town/locality or other non-residential address of the child’s parent or guardian.
Early childhood education and care service This item should be reported for the physical location at which the early childhood education program is delivered. If the early childhood education program is received in a home-based setting (i.e., via distance education programs such as school of the air or e-Kindy), then the location of the service provider delivering the program should be used as the basis for the address.
Mandatory 2 - Address—statistical area, mesh block code (ASGS edition 3) N(11) DSS specific information:
In the National Preschool Attendance Collection, this item should be reported for the address of the child only. This element will be produced by the ABS for each record on the supplied child address file, and supplied to jurisdictions. Jurisdictions will be required to merge this element onto their analytical dataset using the UNIQUE_ID item they provided on the child address file.
Mandatory 1 - Address—suburb/town/locality name, text X[X(45)] DSS specific information:
In the National Preschool Attendance Collection, this item should be collected twice: once for the child and once for the early childhood education and care service.
Child This item should be reported for the usual residence of the child’s parent or guardian. Do not report the suburb/town/locality name based on a post office box or other non-residential address of the child’s parent or guardian.
Early childhood education and care service This item should be reported for the physical location at which the early childhood education program is delivered. If the early childhood education program is received in a home-based setting (i.e., via distance education programs such as school of the air or e-Kindy), then the location of the service provider delivering the program should be used as the basis for the address.
Mandatory 2 - Child—annual preschool program period, total weeks N[N] Mandatory 1 - Child—attendance reference period end date, DDMMYYYY DSS specific information:
In the National Preschool Attendance Collection, this item collects the attendance reference period end date for all children in government school-based preschool programs should align with the jurisdiction's official school term end date.
The attendance reference period end date for all children attending a preschool program within a CBDC should be 2 weeks after the jurisdiction's official school term end dates. The end date of the attendance reference period is the Friday of the last week of the term where the child could have been enrolled. For example, if the term ended on 05072024, but the child only attended until 28062024, then the end date of the attendance reference period should be 0507202.
The attendance reference period end date for children attending non-government school-based preschool programs may differ from the jurisdiction's official school term.
The jurisdiction should clearly indicate in supporting documentation, any estimated or imputed attendance reference period end dates.
If no end date is known enter 31122099.
Jurisdictions are only required to provide dates for the terms they are opting to provide data for. Term 2 data provision is mandatory.
Mandatory 1 - Child—attendance reference period start date, DDMMYYYY DSS specific information:
In the National Preschool Attendance Collection, this item collects the attendance reference period start date for all children in government school-based preschool programs and preschool programs within a CBDC should align with the jurisdiction's official school term.
The attendance reference period start date for children attending non-government school-based preschool programs may differ from the jurisdiction's official school term.
The start date of the attendance reference period is the Monday of the first week of the term where the child could have been enrolled. For example, if the term started on 29042024, but the child first attended on the 16052024, then the start date for the attendance reference period should be 29042024.
If no start date is known enter 01011900.
The jurisdiction should clearly indicate in supporting documentation, any estimated or imputed attendance reference period start dates.
Jurisdictions are only required to provide dates for the terms they are opting to provide data for. Term 2 data provision is mandatory.
Mandatory 1 - Child—enrolment end date, DDMMYYYY DSS specific information:
In the National Preschool Attendance Collection, this item is used to record the child's preschool program enrolment end date for the year (not the end date of the program or the end date of term).
In instances where the child's preschool program end date for the year is not applicable because the child is still enrolled, the date should be set to 31122024.
In instance where a child is enrolled for a week(s), then un-enrols for a week(s), and then re-enrols, each enrolment period start and end date should be provided as separate records of enrolment for the child.
In instances where the jurisdiction can provide the month and year of the end date but cannot provide the day for the child, the day should be set to ‘00’ (i.e. 00052024).
In instances where only year is available, and day and month of end date is unavailable, only year should be supplied, with both day and month components set to ‘00’ (i.e. 00002024).
The jurisdiction should clearly indicate in supporting documentation, any estimated or imputed end dates.
Mandatory 1 - Child—enrolment start date, DDMMYYYY DSS specific information:
In the National Preschool Attendance Collection, this item is used to record the child's preschool program enrolment start date for the year (not the start date of the program or the first day of term), even in instances where the child starts half way through the term.
In instances where the child's preschool program start date for the year is not available, record the child's preschool program enrolment start date for the attendance reference period.
In instances where a child is enrolled for a week(s), then un-enrols for a week(s), and then re-enrols, each enrolment period start and end date should be provided as separate records of enrolment for the child.
In instances where the jurisdiction can provide the month and year of the start date but cannot provide the day, the day should be set to ‘00’ (i.e. 00052024).
In instances where only year is available, and day and month of start date is unavailable, only year should be supplied, with both day and month components set to ‘00’ (i.e. 00002024).
The jurisdiction should clearly indicate in supporting documentation, any estimated or imputed start dates.
Mandatory 1 - Child—maximum annual preschool program hours available, total N[NN] Conditional obligation:
This item is conditional on a CODE 2 'Preschool program offering less than 600 hours' response to Child—preschool program type enrolment, YBFS code N .
DSS specific information:
This item is used to record the maximum annual preschool program hours available to the child at the service, regardless of child-specific enrolment dates. For example, if a program offers 600 hours in a year, 600 program hours would be reported even if a child enrolled part-way through the year.
Include hours attended in non-instructional activities such as recess, tea breaks and lunch breaks if the child remained under the supervision of the service provider for these activities.
If the child attends more than one preschool program in a given day, non-instructional or waiting times between programs should be excluded in the count of hours. For example, if a child attends a morning preschool program at a provider and later returns to attend an afternoon preschool program at the same provider.
Where the service provider offers other integrated childcare services, the hours associated with these services should be excluded from this data element.
Centre Based Day Care For centre based day care, program hours should be calculated based on charged hours across the full week and multiplied by the annual preschool program weeks.
Conditional 1 - Child—operationally unavailable time within a reference period, total hours N[NN] DSS specific information:
In the National Preschool Attendance Collection (NPAC), record the total number of whole hours that were operationally unavailable to the child during the attendance reference period, i.e., minutes should be rounded to the nearest whole hour. In the NPAC, the minimum number of hours allowed to be reported is '1', and the maximum is '720'. Where the number of hours is not stated, '999' should be submitted.
Operationally unavailable hours are defined by the three following categories:
Safety – where there is a safety risk to attendees at the service provider location or in relation to access to the location, whether declared as an emergency or not (e.g. fire or flood) Planning and pupil‐free days – where early childhood education program staff, including teachers, are required to undertake forward planning activities for the ongoing provision of service Public holidays – jurisdictional accepted public holidays. Operationally unavailable hours should only be recorded for children who are enrolled for the hours or day that the program was unavailable (e.g. if a child is enrolled on a Monday and there was a public holiday on that day, include the child’s enrolled hours for that day as operationally unavailable hours).
If operationally unavailable hours are reported, they will be reported as actual where possible or may be estimated where this data is not collected. Where estimates are provided, jurisdictions will provide an explanation of the estimation method.
Mandatory 1 - Child—preschool program type enrolment, YBFS code N DSS specific information:
DRAFT ITEM
Mandatory 1 - Child—time attended in reference period, total hours N[NN]{.N} DSS specific information:
In the National Preschool Attendance Collection (NPAC), this item is used to submit attendance hours for all children who attend at any time during the state specific attendance reference period. In the NPAC, the minimum number of hours allowed to be reported is '1', and the maximum is '720'. Where the number of hours is not stated, '999' should be submitted.
School-based program The count of attendance hours for children in dedicated preschool (sessional) programs will be based on the length of a session for each child reported as attending, not arrival and departure times. For this count actual session hours will be reported (e.g. duration calculated from session start and end time). Where this is not feasible States will have the option to report an estimate of hours if the estimation methodology is explained and is sound. For example, States or Territories with school‐based delivery may wish to provide attendance data that is consistent with national school attendance reporting business rules.
Include hours attended in non-instructional activities such as recess, tea breaks and lunch breaks if the child remained under the supervision of the service provider for these activities.
If the child attends more than one preschool program in a given day, non-instructional or waiting times between programs should be excluded in the count of hours.
Where the service provider offers other integrated childcare services, the hours associated with these services should be excluded from this data element.
Centre Based Day Care Attendance hours for a preschool program delivered in a centre based day care should be calculated by recording the child's arrival and departure times from the preschool program. Hours should be derived from these times.
Mandatory 1 - Child—YBFS preschool repeater flag, Yes/no/unknown/not stated/inadequately described code N DSS specific information:
DRAFT ITEM
Optional 1 - Organisation—organisation name, text X[X(199)] DSS specific information:
In the National Preschool Attendance Collection, this item should be used to report the operating or trading name of the early childhood education and care service which delivers an early childhood education program to children.
The registered business name should not be used if it is different from the name of the early childhood education and care service that it manages or owns.
A campus name or satellite school name (e.g., where the service provider organisation operates early childhood education programs at multiple geographical locations using the same service provider name) may also be used.
Each service provider must have a discrete service provider organisation name to allow identification of each individual location for provision of an early childhood education program.
Mandatory 1 - Person—date of birth, DDMMYYYY DSS specific information:
This item should be reported for the child only.
In the National Preschool Attendance Collection, for components of the Date of birth which are unknown, 00 should be recorded, for example if a child was born in July 2007 but the day of birth is unknown record 00072007.
Mandatory 1 - Person—Indigenous status, code N DSS specific information:
In the National Preschool Attendance Collection, this item should be reported for the child only.
Mandatory 1 - Person—letters of family name, text XXX DSS specific information:
In the National Preschool Attendance Collection, this item should be reported for the child only.
Mandatory 1 - Person—letters of given name, text XX DSS specific information:
In the National Preschool Attendance Collection, this item should be reported for the child only.
Mandatory 1 - Person—sex, code X DSS specific information:
In the National Preschool Attendance Collection, this item should be reported for the child only.
Mandatory 1 - Record—linkage key, code 581 XXXXXDDMMYYYYN Mandatory 1 - Record—linkage key, sequential match code N[N(4)] Conditional obligation:
In the National Preschool Attendance Collection, this item is conditional on the child having a matching Statistical Linkage Key anywhere in the dataset.
DSS specific information:
In the National Preschool Attendance Collection, this item should be reported for the child only.
Conditional 1 - Service provider organisation—organisation identifier, X[X(14)] Mandatory 1 - Service provider organisation—service activity type, early childhood education and care, code N[N] Mandatory 1