PRE-school admissions criteria - which parents claim disadvantage those who work - are to be reviewed.
The Department of Education has launched a public consultation and is seeking views on proposed changes.
Parents have no legal right to a nursery place for their child.
However, the Pre-School Education Programme provides everyone in their immediate pre-school year - age 3 to 4 - the option of a year's schooling.
Where a school has too many applications, priority must be given to families in receipt of income support or jobseekers' allowance.
This has become a greater problem in recent years when applications have been spiralling.
There have been claims that the criteria disadvantage working parents.
The department said all providers are required to give priority to children from "socially disadvantaged circumstances" before considering applications from others.
Approximately 16 per cent of children are currently prioritised in this way, it said.
The consultation seeks views on extending the definition of to include a wider group.
About nine in every 10 pupils are still placed in their first preference setting, although many popular schools remain heavily oversubscribed.
Education minister Peter Weir said the legislation was written more than 20 years ago.
"Much has changed since then. Pre-school education is also delivered in sessions of varying lengths, all teaching the same curriculum and being inspected to the same educational standards," he said.
"This consultation is an important part of the process to ensure that the pre-school admissions process is the best it can be."
The consultation will run for 12 weeks and is available on the department's website at www.education-ni.gov.uk. The online questionnaire is available at `consultation: pre-school admissions criteria'.
