Published 5 April 2026 · 10 min read
If you’re an Australian parent of a neurodivergent child, the last six months have been an emotional rollercoaster. The federal government’s Thriving Kids announcement — the biggest restructure of disability support for young children since the NDIS itself — has left families scrambling for plain-English answers. This is my best attempt at one.
What is Thriving Kids?
Thriving Kids is a new national program for children aged 8 and under with developmental delay or autism who are assessed as having “low to moderate” support needs. The idea is to move those children out of the NDIS and into a new, state-delivered, community-based support model. Commonwealth and state governments have committed $4 billion over five years to fund the first phase.
When is it happening?
Rollout begins by 1 October 2026, with full scale expected by 1 January 2028. From January 2028, NDIS access rules change for this age group. Translation: most parents have roughly 18 months to understand, plan, and — where needed — advocate.
Who stays on the NDIS?
Children with permanent and significant disability remain on the NDIS. Children under 8 with developmental delay or autism AND substantially reduced functional capacity — the language the scheme uses for “high support needs” — also remain. The change specifically targets the low-to-moderate support group, which in practice is a large and contested category.
“The fear in the community isn’t that early support is a bad idea. It’s that a good idea delivered badly will cost a generation of kids their early years.”
Why families are worried
Three things. First, “low to moderate” is a slippery category, and families have seen what happens when assessment thresholds move quietly. Second, state-delivered services have historically been patchy and postcode-dependent. Third, the December 2025 parliamentary inquiry report No Child Left Behind documented widespread concern and called for genuine co-design and strong safeguards before any transition.
Many parents and advocacy groups, including Autism Awareness Australia, have called for the rollout to slow down until the detail is right. That tension — between the government’s timeline and the community’s readiness — is the main story of 2026 for disability families.
What you can do now
Four things. Get your child’s current NDIS plan reviewed and documented carefully before any transition. Gather reports and assessments in one place. Join your state’s autism or ADHD peak body newsletter so you hear changes first. And if you have the energy, write to your MP — not with anger, with specifics. The specifics move things more than the anger does.
What we’ll do on this site
We’ll track every public milestone, publish the actual policy documents when they drop, and keep a plain-English FAQ live. When the rubber hits the road, every AuDHD family in Australia deserves to understand exactly what’s changing for their kid.
Further reading
Australian Government — Thriving Kids official page. The Conversation — If parents designed Thriving Kids. SBS News — Thriving Kids plan explained.
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