Your or your child’s access to education funding is required and protected by:

1. the Australian Education Act 2013 for funding to primary and secondary schools;
2. the Higher Education Support Act 2003 for funding for higher education, vocational education and training, and university education;
3. the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 for funding to support access and participation in an education program.

Under the Australian Education Act, government schools and private schools receive funding from the Commonwealth through their state or territory.

The amount of funding a school receives is worked out using a calculation called the schooling resource standard (SRS), which provides a basic rate per student and loadings for schools with students with greater needs.

The state or territory provides the funding from the Commonwealth directly to the government schools and to the approved authorities for private schools. Each state or territory then provides additional funding for government and private schools, which should at least be equal to the funding from the Commonwealth.

Schools have policies about how they use the funding they receive. These policies are available on the Department of Education website for each state and territory, and on school’s websites.  Departments of Education and schools also provide hard copies of their policies, and it is a good idea for you to ask about these policies.

The Education Act requires Departments of Education and schools to be transparent about how they use funding for students.  It will be important and useful for you to talk to your child’s school principal about funding if your child has additional needs.

Under the Higher Education Support Act 2003, students may get funding support in the form of a loan from the government. The loan is the HELP or Higher Education Loan Program.

This program covers tuition fees and other approved costs (student services and amenities) for Vocational Education and Training and/or University courses.

HELP combines the current HECS – HELP, FEE HELP, SA HELP, OS HELP, VET Fee HELP and VET Student Loans. By 2020 HELP will completely replace these programs. For 2020, the combined HELP loan limit per student is $106,319 for most students. For students undertaking eligible medicine, dentistry, veterinary science and aviation courses, the HELP loan limit IS $152,700.

There are eligibility criteria to obtain HELP. The criteria include:

– the education provider must be an approved provider under the Higher Education Act (2003);

– the student must meet residency or citizen requirements;

– the student must have a tax file number (TFN) from the Australian Tax Office (ATO).

The NDIS ACT 2013 provides funding for reasonable and necessary supports for a person with disability to access and participate in an education program. NDIS funding does not cover fees.

NDIS funding will fund the following if it is reasonable and necessary:

– support for self-care (such as eating, drinking and toileting while attending the education program);

– transport to and from the education program;

– transportable equipment (e.g. wheelchair, hearing aid, communication device);

– support to transition between schools, from school to post-school education and/or training, and from education or training to further education, training or employment.