Since 2010, the Chinese government has adopted a series of services and policies to provide early childhood education for disadvantaged children. The rapid economic development and urbanisation process since the mid-1980s have led to great changes in social structure and demographics in China. This creates new challenges for the education of disadvantaged children. One important issue to be addressed is the lack of quality education opportunities for a special group of disadvantaged children in China, children of migrant worker families. This article presents the social background of migrant children in China, analyses early childhood education system of China, and argues for equal education rights for migrant children. Finally, according to our long-term analysis of practice and policy in early childhood education, we discuss current problems and present future directions for providing compensatory education for these children. (author abstract)