Approximately 21,000 South Australian children will transition to full-time schooling each year. This report summarises a project that aimed to identify the factors which predict different types of transition to school, identify opportunities to provide earlier supports for children, and to work collaboratively with government and non-government partners to harness data in ways that help to inform policy making and service delivery. 

The project provides an example of how de-identified linked government data can be used to generate evidence to support informed decisions around investment in early life child and family supports. 

While early life disadvantage is not deterministic of later poor outcomes, the case for investment in effective and supportive responses for children and families to support better school transitions is clear. Evidence from this report includes estimates of the prevention potential if targeted effective supports were offered to specific priority populations early in life. The report also identifies opportunities to improve transitions to school.

Key insights

• The experience of early-life disadvantage is common.
• Children who experienced early life disadvantage were more likely to have a range of adverse school transition outcomes.
• All forms of early life disadvantage consistently increased the risk of poor school transitions across multiple measures.
• A higher proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children experienced poorer school transition outcomes.
• Early childhood education and care systems, whether that be formal childcare or preschool, are clearly opportunities to support better development and school transition outcomes.