FAQ: Start Strong (NSW Kindergarten) Funding Automation

Modified on Tue, 5 Mar at 2:18 AM

This article will run through any Frequently Asked Questions in regards to the Start Strong New South Wales Kindergarten Fee Relief Funding Automations in Kangarootime.

Q: How did you develop your Kindergarten automation formula?
A: Fee Relief
The amount is adjusted up or down depending on how many weeks your program operates for. For example, if your program operates for 50 weeks then the rate paid per week is 1/50th of the annual rate.

Gap
Kangarootime will calculate the gap for the Kindy program for the child each week. This differs from the gap for child care. The Kindy program gap is determined by using the program's hours for each day.
For example, if a child has a 10-hour session for $100, and a Kindy program operates for 5 hours, the fee for Kindy is considered to be $50.
Similarly, if the child receives $60 of CCS that day, the gap for Kindy is considered to be $20 - the $50 fee for Kindy and $30 of CCS.

Rounding
If fractional cents are present due to distributing the subsidy across weeks, or by pro-rating it with the given percentage, Kangarootime will round the fractional cents up or down depending on whether it's an odd or even week.
For more information, visit: 2023 Start Strong for Long Day Care program guidelines for 2023, or 2024 Start Strong for Long Day Care program guidelines for 2024.

Q: Do I have to go to every child's Agency program on their account to set up their automated Start Strong payments?
A: No. By setting up the automation within the Centre program, by default it will automatically distribute the Start Strong subsidy to all eligible children linked to that program

Q: Can I stop the automated Start Strong payments for a child?

A: Yes. You have the ability to go to a child’s individual Agency program and enter the date you want them to stop receiving funding from. For this child, this will override the centre default settings.

Q: When does the automation process run?

A: 11pm AEST.
This means if you make a change to the program or child’s automation schedule it is not reflected immediately.
The automation considers weeks prior to the current week to be ready for automated funding. The automation will not estimate subsidies in advance.

Q: When are Kindy payments created and applied to the elligble accounts?
A: Every night at 11pm AEST, the weekly payments are created for the full weeks prior to the current week. This is to ensure that the payments have the most accurate attendance information to distribute on.
The transaction’s effective date will be the Monday of each week.