Three-year-old kindergarten is being offered at all Towong Council childcare centres for the first time under the state government's free kinder initiative.
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From this week, parents can access two free days, or 15 hours, weekly at Bellbridge, Tallangatta, Walwa and Corryong centres.
There is capacity at all four centres, but Corryong is quickly filling up.
It is part of the Victorian government's commitment to provide up to 15 hours free for all three-year-old children by 2029.
Locations with the most capacity were first off the rank in 2020 and Alpine, Indigo and Towong were the parts of the North East added in 2021.
Alpine Children's Services chief executive Tanya Scott said the roll-out varied across their services according to need.
"We've been in contact will all of our existing families and partnering with Alpine Shire Council in terms of identifying all three-year-olds in the shire," she said.
"It's fantastic the state government has put an additional $2000 towards gap fees for parents.
"Coming out of bushfires and COVID, we were worried about our numbers, but we've actually had an increase in enrolments.
"Being able to offer a full kindergarten program to three- and four-year-olds will increase the educational outcomes for children, who ultimately have the benefit of an additional two years before school."
Alpine Children's Services will be better-placed moving forward with members voting to change the group's governance to align with the Victorian Department of Education's best practice model.
Chair David Dart said the former model was restrictive.
"Governance models have changed and we needed to move to a best-practice model, which is consistent with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission," he said.
"Under the old model, it was a committee of management; there was a lot mot monitoring at a lower level and we also only had a part-time administrator.
"Now, we have a full-time chief executive and it's going to be a true governance body, delegating management back to the CEO who will report back to the board."
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Mr Dart a new skills-based board and a more flexible constitution would enhance operations for 100 staff and outcomes for 450 families.
"With Alpine Shire Council, we received a $1 million grant to extend our service," he said.
"We will make changes that allow us to host visiting speech pathologists, dietitians, occupational therapists and psychologists."
The company will be formalised by April.
For Towong, any enrolments can be made on the Council website, or call Council on 1300 365 222.
