New data from the latest Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) indicates that close to half of children entering school in 2024 were developmentally vulnerable on one or more domains.
The census data was collected from 16,723 teachers and more than 288,000 children across 7,368 Australian schools. It found that only 52.9% of children in this age-bracket are on track to meet key developmental milestones by the time they start school, with the remainder falling behind.
Children with a background other than English, children in remote and rural areas, and children experiencing poverty experienced greater developmental vulnerability, while the percentage of First Nations children developmentally on track also experienced a decline.
New data from the latest Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) indicates that close to half of children entering school in 2024 were developmentally vulnerable on one or more domains. The census data […]