15 October 2025

Artificial Intelligence in Early Childhood Care and Education

In recent years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools are increasingly being used in the early education sector. While these tools can help streamline some processes and support professional practice, their use must always be thoughtful, ethical and consistent with privacy, data protection and regulatory requirements.

How AI might be used

When used appropriately, AI tools may help educators and services to:

• Support documentation and planning cycles.
• Assist with administrative tasks such as developing communication templates.
• Generate ideas for learning environments or experiences, for educators to then adapt using their professional judgement and understanding of children's individual needs.
• Summarise research, policy and legislation to support professional learning.  

Things to consider

If you are curious about exploring AI tools in your service or your practice:

• Research: Read guidance from reliable sources such as ACECQA and discuss within your team or with your coordinators. Look into AI tools designed specifically for education purposes and explore how other services are using them to understand what works well and what challenges have emerged.
• Assess: Understand what each tool does, what data it collects and how it is used, and whether it aligns with your values or policies.
• Trial carefully: If appropriate, start small, for example, using AI to summarise information or to draft an email. For services, you may want to test it on a small scale, with a few confident educators first, before implementing wider service use.
• Review and reflect: Gather feedback from educators, families, and coordinators about what is appropriate and safe. Stay protected: Ensure your digital technology or privacy policies are up to date and that staff and educators understand how to use these tools responsibly.

For family day care, AI may offer opportunities to reduce workload and enhance reflective practice however it can never replace the personal relationships and responsiveness that sit at the heart of family day care.

For further information, ACECQA has a blog post The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education and care services and policy guidelines Safe use of digital technologies and online environments available on their website.

Do you know the Difference Between National Law and Family Assistance Law Notification Requirements?

Family day care services operate under two key legislative frameworks – the National Law and Regulations and the Family Assistance Law (FAL) - each with its own reporting and notification obligations.

The National Law and Regulations set the quality and safety standards for early childhood education and care. Notifications under the ECEC framework are submitted to the relevant state or territory regulatory authority and may include:

• Changes to information about the approved provider
• Changes to information about the education and care service
• Approval in principle for new services (ACT and VIC only)
• Incidents and complaints
• Information for FDC Educators to report to their approved provider
• Notification to parents

A detailed table of notification types and time frames for the National Law and Regulations can be found here.

The Family Assistance Law governs the administration of Child Care Subsidy (CCS). Notifications under FAL are submitted to the Australian Government Department of Education and may include, but are not limited to:

• Change of address
• Changes to enrolments
• Changes to name or contact details 
• Fees
• Session reports
• Opening hours
• Closures
• Changes to working with children checks

A detailed table of notification types and time frames for Family Assistance Law can be found here.

Understanding and meeting the distinct notification requirements under both frameworks ensures compliance, supports service operations, and maintains the safety and quality of family day care services.

Have Your Say on the Future of Early Childhood Education and Care Qualifications

FDCA members – including both family day care educators and services - are invited to share their real-world experiences and insights to help shape the future of Certificate III and Diploma qualifications in early childhood education and care. Family day care is often underrepresented in national discussions about qualifications, and it is important that our sector's voice is heard. Your input will ensure that future training truly reflects the unique skills, knowledge and relationships that underpin quality family day care practice.

Your input will directly inform the Early Childhood Education and Care Qualification Review, led by HumanAbility, which aims to improve training products, processes and outcomes across the sector. 

HumanAbility is running educator-centred focus groups and is particularly interested in hearing from those who work in the family day care sector about the tasks you do every day, how well your qualification reflects your real work, what changes are needed to better support educators and services, and your thoughts on future career pathways. 

To take part, you can register via the website here.

Help shape the future of educator training and ensure that family day care is part of the story.

Geccko online learning: Record Keeping under Family Assistance Law

The Australian Government Department of Education is progressively adding more short courses to its online learning platform, Geccko. Geccko is an online learning platform that is tailored to the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector. One of the available courses is ‘Record Keeping under Family Assistance Law’.

This course provides early childhood education and care providers who administer Child Care Subsidy (CCS) and Additional Child Care Subsidy (ACCS) with information about the requirement to keep records under Family Assistance Law.

In the course, participants will learn how to:

• Define record keeping
• Understand the record keeping requirements under Family Assistance Law
• Identify the records providers must make and keep
• Explain the potential consequences of failing to make and keep records
• Explain why records need to be kept safe and secure

All Geccko courses are self-paced and can be accessed via tablet, computer, laptop or mobile phone. On completion of this course, you can download a certificate for your professional development records.

To access this course or to find out more about other free online courses provided by Geccko, you can register here.