If you work or volunteer in an early childhood service, you need to have finished the national foundation child safety training by Thursday 27 August 2026. It is free, it is two short courses, and it is only available in one place. Here is what it means for you personally.
This is the educator's version. If you are the one responsible for making sure a whole service is covered, including records, volunteers and the funding support available, read the full guide for services instead.
Does this apply to me?
Almost certainly yes. The requirement covers everyone working or volunteering in a service regulated under the National Quality Framework, and it does not matter whether your role puts you with children.
- Educators and teachers, including family day care educators
- Nominated supervisors and persons in day-to-day charge
- Persons with management or control
- Family day care coordinators
- Regular and semi-regular volunteers
- Students on placement for an approved ECEC qualification
Two groups often assume they are exempt and are not. If you volunteer regularly, you are covered. If you are on placement as a student, you are covered, even though nobody employs you.
What is my actual deadline?
There are two, and the date you started decides which one is yours.
If you were already working or volunteering at a service before 14 August 2026, your deadline is 27 August 2026.
If you started on or after 14 August 2026, your deadline is whichever comes first: before you begin working directly with children, or within 14 days of being employed, engaged or appointed.
That second one is easy to miss, because everyone is talking about the 27th. If you have just started somewhere, the 27 August date is not yours. Your clock started on your first day, and if you are rostered with children before it runs out, the training has to be done first.
What is involved?
Two courses, and both have to be completed for the foundation training to count. They are free, and they take roughly two hours in total. You do not have to do them in one sitting.
The training is only available through Geccko, the Australian Government Department of Education's online learning platform. Training you have done anywhere else, however good it was, does not meet this requirement.
Two practical tips. Register with your own personal email address rather than a service account, so your record travels with you if you change jobs. And when you finish, download your completion certificate from Geccko and keep a copy for yourself. Your service will almost certainly ask for it, and it is easier to send than to re-prove later.
I have not done it yet. What now?
Do it, and tell your nominated supervisor or coordinator where you are up to. Services are working out who still needs to finish, and being on that list as "booked in for Thursday" is a completely different conversation from being on it as "unknown".
If your service is arranging protected time for it, ask. There is a funding arrangement that lets approved services close after 5:00 pm for up to five hours a year specifically so staff can complete this training, and a separate wage subsidy has been available in application rounds. Whether your service uses either is their call, but it is a reasonable thing to ask about.
Is this the same as my child protection training?
No, and this is the single most common misunderstanding.
Child safety training is the new national requirement, the same everywhere in Australia, delivered on Geccko.
Child protection training is a separate requirement, and what satisfies it depends on your state or territory. Victoria has its own PROTECT eLearning. Queensland has a list of approved courses. New South Wales requires an approved protocol course for certain roles.
Doing one does not complete the other. If you have a current child protection certificate, you still need the national foundation modules by 27 August.
How often do I have to redo it?
Every two years. Foundation and advanced training are both on a two-year refresher cycle.
Be careful here if you are in Victoria, because you are running two different clocks. The national child safety training refreshes every two years. Victoria's refreshed PROTECT eLearning must be completed by 27 August 2026 and then every 12 months after that. Annual and two-yearly, side by side, and one does not cover the other.
There is also advanced training coming, with its own timing. If you are in a relevant role before 30 September 2026, you have until 31 March 2027. If you start in one on or after 30 September 2026, you have three months from your start date.
The short version
- Two free courses, on Geccko, about two hours.
- By 27 August 2026 if you started before 14 August 2026.
- Within 14 days, or before working with children, if you started on or after 14 August 2026.
- Download your certificate and keep your own copy.
- Redo it every two years.
- Your state child protection training is separate and still applies.
A note on accuracy. The requirements above were checked against ACECQA and the Australian Government Department of Education on 19 August 2026. Requirements differ by state and territory and can change. This is general information to support your professional judgement, not advice about your situation. Confirm anything you are about to act on with your service or your state or territory regulatory authority.