The Office for Early Childhood Education and Care works collaboratively with education and care services in regions that become affected by cyclonic activity and floods or any other natural disaster.
Some services affected by natural disasters may temporarily close or operate at a reduced capacity, due to damage caused by flood waters for example. The department acknowledges that services in affected regions work to provide valuable support to the community often at a time of crisis, including to care for children from surrounding impacted services while community members, including parents, assist with the clean up process.
If you are currently having difficulty - or are likely to have difficulty - complying with legislation as the result of natural disaster impacts, please contact your Early Childhood Manager (contact details are provided by Region below).
The Department of Education and Training and the Office for Early Childhood Education and Care will work with you to explore flexible options to ensure service continuity wherever possible.
The Australian Government and the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations also support communities affected by cyclonic activity and floods.
If your service is unable to submit reports to the Child Care Management System (CCMS) for more than a fortnight, due to disruptions caused by cyclonic activity or the floods, you may request a Business Continuity Payment 
. This is not an extra payment, but an advance of Child Care Benefit (CCB) funds, based on recent payment history. The advance is recovered from future payments once you are able to resume normal reporting to the CCMS.
For more information and contact details visit the My Child website .
Amendments to the Child Care Regulation 2003 
170k allow services that are regulated by the Child Care Act 2002 (those which are out-of-scope of the National Quality Framework), that are operating in areas impacted by certain severe weather events to apply for fees for certain child care licensing transactions to be waived or refunded, where the Department is satisfied that they have suffered hardship.
Licensees of affected ECEC services regulated by the Child Care Act 2002(out-of-scope of the NQF) may apply to the Department of Education and Training for:
This will enable these services to redirect those funds to where they may be better used to rebuild their service and restore the provision of care and education to children and families.
Licensees are invited to contact 
134k the Department of Education and Training Early Childhood Manager in their region if they require assistance.
The Education and Care Services National Law allows the department to consider applications for two types of exemptions from meeting the physical environment requirements outlined in the National Regulations (for in-scope services):
Approved providers of in-scope services who are unable to meet the physical environment requirements in the Regulations are invited to contact the Department of Education and Training Early Childhood Manager in their region for assistance.
In addition, the Education and Care Services National Law allows the department to waive, reduce or defer any fee payable under exceptional circumstances. If an in-scope service is required to relocate as a result of the impact of a natural disaster, Approved providers are able to contact the Department of Education and Training Early Childhood Manager in their region to discuss this process.
Parents should contact an affected service directly for information about damage to facilities and any changes to operating hours or arrangements.
For information about locations of early education and care services please call the Early Childhood Information Service on 1800 637 711.
For information about C&K services please call 1800 177 092.
Service directors, licensees or approved providers are invited to contact 134k the Department of Education and Training Early Childhood Manager in their region if they require assistance.
If you are having difficulty contacting any DET services, please call the Queensland Government call centre on 13 QGOV (13 74 68).
The Department of Education and Training, in conjunction with Professor Justin Kenardy BSc.Hons, PhD Qld, FAPS, has developed some vodcasts to assist educators and parents assist children (0-5) who have been affected by natural disasters and who may be experiencing feelings of anxiety.
Professor Kenardy is currently the Professor of Medicine and Psychology at the University of Queensland and also the Deputy Director of the Centre of National Research on Disability and Rehabilitation Medicine.
Vodcast - Answers for Educators (duration: 00:16:07)
Vodcast - Answers for Parents (duration: 00:10:44)
Further Vodcasts and material to support students, staff and parents.
For the latest information including support and assistance, please visit the Queensland Government website Queensland floods .
The Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations is responsible for the administration of the Child Care Benefit.
Special Child Care Benefit is available to cover up to the full cost of child care in an approved child care service for families faced with a hardship event that affects their ability to pay their usual child care fees.
For more information about disaster related events and Child Care Benefit please visit the My Child website .
This page was last reviewed on 20 Mar 2012
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© The State of Queensland (Department of Education, Training and Employment) 2011.
