Maribyrnong council has defended its method of allocating kindergarten places despite criticism from parents who have missed out on their preferred options.
Maidstone mother Dianne MacDonald said she was disappointed her son missed out on a four-year-old kindergarten offer at Dobson Kindergarten despite spending a lengthy period on the waiting list and attending its three-year-old kinder program.
Ms MacDonald said parents were upset to find places were being offered ‘at random’.
“It’s all really mismanaged and there are a lot of angry parents at the moment,” she said.
“Children who attended three-year-old kinder don’t get priority.
Rather than giving people priority based on how long they have been on the waiting list, they are putting people in at random.”
Ms MacDonald, a kindergarten teacher, said places had gone to people who had applied much later than her family.
“Before, when you put your name down you got priority,” she said.
Maribyrnong community services director Clem Gillings said the current computer-generated offers process, which came into place in 2013 following a review, was determined by the state government’s “local area priority of access criteria”.
She said the practice of not giving any weight to the application date was in keeping with the criteria as well as Municipal Association of Victoria and Department of Education and Training kindergarten guidelines.
“This approach ensures equal access to kindergarten services for all children, and to ensure children are not being disadvantaged based on their birth date or due to moving into the area the year before,” she said.
Ms Gillings said the process took into account nominated preferences, but no priority was given to children in optional three-year-old kindergarten programs as they generally had higher fees than the subsidised four-year-old kindergarten program.
Second-round offers are scheduled for later this month.
Ms Gillings said that although the council had “an excellent track record” in placing most children in kindergarten, high demand meant it was not always possible for families to be offered places in first and second-round offers.
