Townsville families are the first in Queensland to benefit from a new program offering free health checks for kindy-aged children, as part of a $37.5 million state initiative to give every child the best start before school.
The Healthy Kindy Kids program is now rolling out across local kindergartens, delivering on-site vision, hearing, speech, and language screenings to help catch potential issues early before they impact learning in the classroom.
Premier David Crisafulli said the initiative delivers on a key election promise to make health services more accessible where families need them most.
Health professionals including allied health assistants, students, and nurses will visit government-approved kindy programs across Townsville to conduct the checks, prioritising children whose parents or teachers have raised developmental concerns.
Up to 60,000 children will benefit from the program each year once it expands statewide by 2027, with Townsville’s pilot is the first stage of the statewide rollout.
