The Earlier, the Better? School Entry and Child Maltreatment

Debate over the optimal school starting age has focused largely on children’s educa- tional and developmental outcomes, with little attention given to whether starting school earlier may protect vulnerable children from maltreatment. This paper examines that pos- sibility by exploiting a date-of-birth cut-off for school entry in Australia. We find that earlier school entry reduces the probability of a maltreatment notification from a non- education reporter by 4.3 percentage points or 50% relative to the mean. The reduction is driven largely by fewer police notifications and notifications involving emotional abuse. In contrast, notifications from education-sector reporters are unaffected overall, reflect- ing offsetting changes in notifications from preschool and school-based educators. The protective effects are concentrated among children without younger siblings and extend to older siblings, with the pattern of results suggesting that relaxed childcare constraints and increased maternal employment may be important mechanisms.