Senator Chris Evans: The Minister representing for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question: In response to your first question, per capita payments for Indigenous students in the 2008 to 2011 funding years were transacted under two Acts. Payments in 2008 were made under the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act, 2000. Payments in 2009, 2010 and 2011 were made under the Schools Assistance Act, 2008. A detailed response is therefore provided in two parts – one for each of these periods – as shown at Attachments A and B and summarised below: (1) (a) 2008 Per capita payments to non-government schools for Indigenous Students (Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) ACT, 2000). The table at Attachment A outlines Indigenous funding paid to non-government schools on a per capita basis for 2008 under the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act, 2000. The per capita elements are segmented by three programs: Supplementary Recurrent Assistance (SRA); English as a Second Language – Indigenous Language Speaking Students (ESL-ILSS); Indigenous Tutorial Assistance Scheme (ITAS) – to schools, including: - ITAS – In Class Tuition; - ITAS – Years 9-12; and - ITAS – Remote Indigenous Students. Attachment A also includes detailed calculation methodology, as contained in the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act, 2000 (2005-2008) Provider Guidelines. The funding provided to non-government schools is also publicly available through the National Report to Parliament, which is available at: http://www.deewr.gov.au/Indigenous/Resources/Documents/2008NRPIndigenousEdTraining.pdf NOTE: in most cases, payments to non-government schools were either made to clusters of schools through a single school, or direct to education systems which then disbursed the funding to individual schools. Payments which were made this way are not reportable at the school level. (b) 2009 to 2011 per capita payments to non-government schools for Indigenous Students (Schools Assistance Act, 2008). Attachment B outlines Indigenous funding paid to non-government schools on a per capita basis over the period 2009 to 2011. The per capita elements are segmented by two programs: Indigenous Supplementary Assistance; and Indigenous Funding Guarantee. The enrolments included in Attachment B are those reported at Schools Census Day and may vary from other published data as they do not include enrolment variations made after the end of a calendar year. The data includes the percentage of Indigenous enrolments at each school and the location of the school. Funding amounts for systemic schools listed in Attachment B are the amounts that the schools are entitled to under the existing Commonwealth funding arrangements and may be different from the amounts allocated to the schools by the system authority. A detailed breakdown of the calculation methodology for Indigenous Supplementary Assistance and Indigenous Funding Guarantee funding is provided below. Indigenous Supplementary Assistance. Indigenous Supplementary Assistance is provided at a per capita rate, based on the level of schooling (primary or secondary) and whether the school is located in a remote/very remote area or a non remote area. The relevant per capita rates are then multiplied by the number of primary or secondary Indigenous enrolments at the school. The initial 2009 rates were determined by legislation and are set out in the Schools Assistance Act, 2008 (p. 57-62). The final 2009 rates were determined by indexing these initial rates by 2009 Average Government School Recurrent Costs. Similarly, the rates for subsequent years were determined by indexing the final rate of the preceding year by the Average Government School Recurrent Costs for the current year. Indigenous Funding Guarantee The Indigenous Funding Guarantee was introduced to ensure that non-government schools and school systems received total recurrent funding from 2009 at least comparable to that received in 2008. The Indigenous Funding Guarantee is a transition measure and is not intended to insulate schools from funding impacts associated with enrolment changes. Only schools or systems that received Indigenous Funding Guarantee in 2009 are eligible to receive Indigenous Funding Guarantee in a subsequent program year. Once a school or system becomes ineligible for Indigenous Funding Guarantee funding, it ceases to be eligible for the remainder of the funding period. The methods used to calculate the Indigenous Funding Guarantee are: 'Total School' Approach: (for non-systemic schools) Compares 2008 total recurrent funding levels with total recurrent funding levels in a subsequent program year, adjusting for enrolment changes if these fall below 2008 levels. 'Per Capita' Approach: (for non-systemic schools) Compares 2008 per capita recurrent funding levels with per capita recurrent funding levels in a subsequent program year. School System Approach: (for school systems) Compares a system's 2008 total recurrent funding levels with total recurrent funding levels in a subsequent program year. Calculations are based on the aggregate entitlements of a system's member schools. For non-systemic schools, the Indigenous Funding Guarantee is calculated on either a total school or per capita basis, depending on which arrangement delivers the greatest funding to an eligible school. Attachment B does not include the School System Approach as it has no per capita component. (2) Note: per capita payments for Indigenous boarding students in the 2008 to 2011 funding years were transacted under two Acts. Payments in 2011 for Increased Indigenous Supplementary Assistance were made under the Schools Assistance Act, 2008. Payments for the per capita component of ABSTUDY in 2008 to 2011 inclusive were made under the Student Assistance Act, 1973. The response is therefore provided in two parts. (a) 2011 Increased Indigenous Supplementary Assistance for non-remote boarding schools (Schools Assistance Act, 2008). In the lead-up to the 2010 election, the Australian Government made a commitment to provide increased funding to eligible non government boarding schools with enrolments of more than 50 Indigenous boarding students. This commitment provides non-remote boarding schools with the higher (remote) rates of Indigenous Supplementary Assistance where more than 50 Indigenous students are boarding from remote Indigenous communities. Eligible schools will receive $2713 (primary) and $2552 (secondary) for each Indigenous boarding student from a remote Indigenous community. This payment is in addition to the per capita Indigenous Supplementary Assistance. Five schools have been identified as eligible for Increased Indigenous Supplementary Assistance in 2011. These schools received funding at the secondary rate of $2552: Djarragun College, Gordonvale Qld; Mount St Bernard College, Herberton Qld; Kormilda College, Berrimah NT; St John's College, Stuart Park NT; and Marrara Christian School, Marrara NT. Attachment B provides the funding details for each of these schools in the last column. (b) 2008 to 2011 Indigenous per capita funding provided to non-government Schools (Student Assistance Act, 1973). The only component of ABSTUDY paid on a per capita basis is the Under 16 Boarding Supplement. This supplement assists boarding schools with a significant number of Indigenous enrolments to cover the shortfall in boarding and tuition fees paid for students under 16 years of age. These students receive a lower rate of ABSTUDY Living Allowance than those students aged between 16 and 20 years. The Under 16 Boarding Supplement provides the school with the difference between the two rates of ABSTUDY Living Allowance. These boarding schools then receive the same rate of ABSTUDY assistance for all their eligible secondary boarding students regardless of age. For a school to qualify for this payment, at least 10 per cent of the total numbers of students enrolled at the school must be Indigenous Australians, or a minimum of 20 Indigenous students must be enrolled. The Supplement is paid directly to qualifying schools twice a year by the Department of Human Services (formerly Centrelink). In 2011, qualifying boarding schools will receive $2294 per semester for each eligible student. It is not practicable to collect and manually interrogate Department of Human Services data to provide a per capita breakdown of payments made. Attachment C lists the schools that were eligible to receive the Under 16 Boarding Supplement for their ABSTUDY eligible boarding students but does not include details of funding provided. Attachments A, B and C are available from the Senate Table Office.