Financial assistance for participating schools is payable by the Commonwealth each year, based on a formula in Division 2 of this Part. The formula produces the Commonwealth share of a total amount of funding.

All participating schools are entitled to a base amount of funding for every student. Students and schools who need extra support will also attract additional loadings.

The base amount, and most of the loadings, are worked out by reference to an amount per student called the SRS funding amount. (SRS is short for schooling resource standard). There is a different SRS funding amount for primary and secondary students, which is indexed yearly.

The base amount for a school for a year reflects:

               (a)     the number of students at the school for the year; and

              (b)     the SRS funding amount for the year for a student at the school; and

               (c)     the capacity of the school's community to contribute financially to the school.

The following loadings are also provided:

               (a)     a loading for students with disability;

              (b)     a loading for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students;

               (c)     a loading for students with a low socioeconomic status;

              (d)     a loading for students who have low English proficiency;

               (e)     a loading for schools that are not in major cities;

               (f)     a loading for schools that are not large schools.

The loadings (except the size loading) are a percentage of the relevant SRS funding amount multiplied by the number of students at a school that qualify for that loading. The size loading provides an amount based on the total number of students at a school. Small schools, and very small schools in very remote areas with a certain number of students, are entitled to the maximum size loading while large schools are not entitled to any size loading. All other schools are entitled to a proportion of the maximum size loading.

Not all participating schools will attract the amount worked out using the formula immediately. Whether a particular school attracts funding using the formula depends on comparing an old per student amount for the school's approved authority and a new per student amount. Approved authorities whose old per student amount for 2014 is less than their new per student amount for 2014 will move to the new per student amount over a period of time. Approved authorities whose old per student amount for 2013, increased by 3%, is more than their new per student amount for 2014 will continue to receive the old per student amount, plus indexation, until their new per student amount catches up.

A special transitional rule applies for special schools and special assistance schools for 2014 to ensure that the approved authority for those schools is paid at least the old per student amount for those students.