Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children thrive in their early years.

By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children assessed as developmentally on track in all five domains of the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) to 55%.

The proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children assessed as developmentally on track in all five domains of the AEDC.

The measure is defined as:

Numerator – number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the first year of full-time schooling who scored above the cut off score for developmentally on track in all five domains of the AEDC.

Denominator – total number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the first year of full‑time schooling

and is presented as a percentage.

National Agreement on Closing the Gap July 2020

30 June 2022

Target

A high or increasing proportion is desirable.

Name: AEDC microdata file.

Frequency: Three‑yearly

Documentation (links): https://www.aedc.gov.au

Provider name: Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment

Provider area: Australian Early Development Census

2018

2021

2031

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status.

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status, by sex.

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status, by remoteness area.

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status, by Index of Relative Socio‑economic Disadvantage (IRSD) quintile.

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status, children with disability.

Numerator divided by Denominator multiplied by 100.

Counting rules

Children who score above the 25th percentile, determined using the cut‑off points established in the first national census (2009 AEDC), are classified as ‘on track’. A set of cut‑off points define on track for each of the five domains: physical health and well-being, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills (school‑based), and communication skills and general knowledge.

Geographical variables are based on the location in which the child resides.

As age is a factor contributing to children’s development, the published AEDC results control for age (excluding counts of children with disability).

Includes (disability status only)

• numerator is number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children with special needs (all excluded from the target indicator) and number of children identified by the teacher as needing assessment
• denominator is number of all children included in the AEDC.

Excludes (both numerator and denominator)

• children for whom Indigenous status was not stated
• (except disability status) children without valid scores in any of the five domains. Instruments are flagged as invalid because domain scores are not calculated for: children with special needs; children in class less than one month; children aged less than four years old; or where the teacher is unable to answer at least 75% of items in any given domain.
• (except disability status) children without the sufficient information across the five domains to determine whether they are developmentally on track in all five domains. (Sufficient information: children with valid scores in each of the five domains, or with valid scores in fewer than five domains but at least one of those is ‘developmentally at risk’ or ‘developmentally vulnerable’).

Disaggregations:

• Sex is recorded for the child as either male or female.
• Remoteness area is classified according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2016 Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) (see ASGS: Volume 5 - Remoteness Structure, July 2016 (see abs.gov.au) using SA1 as the building block.
• Socio‑economic status of the locality is classified according to the ABS Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA): Index of Relative Socio‑economic Disadvantage (IRSD), 2016 (see abs.gov.au) using SA1 as the building block. Data are reported by IRSD quintile that are determined at the Australian level and exclude children with unknown or unavailable SEIFA score.
• Disability relates to:
  • Children with special needs: children those who have chronic medical, physical or intellectual disabilities that require special assistance, based on medical diagnosis. All children with special needs do not have domain scores calculated and are excluded from the ‘on track in all five domains’ measure.
  • Children identified by teachers as requiring further assessment: to determine if they have a developmental difficulty that affects their ability to do schoolwork in a regular classroom. Data exclude children with no teacher assessment or where the teacher assessment is ‘Don’t know’.

See http://www.aedc.gov.au for further information.

The AEDC is a national population measure on how children have developed by the time they start their first year of full‑time school. Information is collected through a teacher‑completed instrument in children’s first year of full‑time schooling.

For 2021, the AEDC data was collected for 305,015 children, equating to an estimated 95.5% of first year school enrolments based on ABS schools data. Of the 305,015 children with data collected for the AEDC, 20,646 children (6.8%) were Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children. Based on ABS estimates, this equates to an estimated 96.2% of first year school enrolments for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

Of the participating children, 5.7% did not have domain scores calculated or did not have sufficient information across the five domains to determine whether they are developmentally on track in all five domains (10.3% of participating Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children).

Research conducted in 2007 validated the AEDC for use for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children (AEDC Indigenous Adaptation Study).

The target year is 2031, however the AEDC is currently only collected every three years. The closest year to the target year that the AEDC is projected to be collected is 2030.