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Apply for the Preschool Drive Subsidy Pilot 2023

The Preschool Drive Subsidy Pilot has been extended for the 2023 school year. The Pilot is available to families in remote and very remote areas that have preschool aged children enrolled in a participating early childhood education service. The subsidy is intended to partly offset the cost of using a private vehicle to drive the eligible preschool aged child all of the way to preschool.

Things to know before applying

Who can get a Preschool Drive Subsidy

The preschool child must:

  • be a resident of NSW, and
  • live in a remote or very remote area in accordance with ARIA+ classification, and
  • be enrolled in a participating early childhood education service in a remote or very remote area as either:
    • two years before school or
    • the year before school.
  • live more than the minimum distance to preschool. Note: payment of the subsidy is capped at 50km one way.

The minimum distance between the home and the preschool needs to exceed 1.6 km (straight line distance) or is at least 2.3 km walking distance.

If your early childhood education service is not in the list of participating services shown in the application form, please speak to your service in the first instance to ask if they are eligible to participate. If your service needs more information about their eligibility to participate in the trial, please contact RemoteECEC@det.nsw.edu.au or if you have questions about the application process, please complete the feedback form.

For the pilot, payments for journeys are capped at a maximum distance of 50 kilometres between the home and preschool. Attendance is also capped at 86 days per annum to meet the recommended 600 hours of preschool before commencing formal schooling.

The subsidy is only payable for journeys during the 2022 school terms as detailed by the Department of Education.

For information on how they subsidy is calculated and paid, please see School Drive Subsidy.

Completing the form

  • If additional information needs to accompany the application the documents should be prepared or scanned before starting the online application.
  • You need to give us details of your school journey (driving all your eligible students) on the application form.
  • You will need a valid email address as we will notify you by email of the outcome of your application.
  • You will need your bank account details.
  • Applications must be made by a parent or legal guardian (even if the student is aged 16 years or over).

Please also note:

  • If our system isn't able to recognise your residential street address (for example, if you don't have a street number), you will be prompted to enter the Lot number, DP (Deposited Plan) number and Section number (if applicable) of your home in your application.
  • Subsidy payments can only be made into the parent/guardian's own bank account, not into an account held by a third party (e.g. a bus operator hired by parents from pooled resources or a preschool).

Applications must be submitted by:

  • the last day of Term 2 for semester one payments, or
  • the last day of Term 4 for semester two payments.

Apply for Preschool Drive Subsidy

If you already receive the School Drive Subsidy

If you already receive the School Drive Subsidy, please login to the Parent Portal to apply for all the children within the household by selecting ‘Change application’.

You can also log in to the School Drive Subsidy Parent Portal to:

  • track the status of your application.
  • see details of your journeys and payments.
  • submit a change application if
    • you need to add a preschool child to the application.
    • the school trip changes because you move homes or a student changes schools.

Paper forms

If you don't have access to the Internet you can ask at the preschool to download and print a paper application form. Once the form is completed and signed the form can be uploaded via our feedback form. 

Further assistance