This Act provides Commonwealth financial assistance for schools. The financial assistance is provided to States under section   96 of the Constitution, and to Territories under section   122 of the Constitution. The Act imposes requirements on States and Territories as conditions of this financial assistance, including requirements to comply with intergovernmental agreements on school education, and to implement nationally - agreed policy initiatives on school education.

Each school has an approved authority, which is approved by the Minister. For a government school located in a State or Territory, the approved authority is the State or Territory. For a non - government school, the approved authority is a body corporate that is approved by the Minister for the school.

Financial assistance is provided directly to a State or Territory for its government schools. Financial assistance for a non - government school located in a State or Territory is provided to the State or Territory which must give it to the approved authority for the school.

The amount of financial assistance that a school attracts for a year is worked out using the formula in Division   2 of Part   3. The financial assistance consists of a base amount for all schools, plus loadings for schools with students with greater needs. 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.)

The formula produces the Commonwealth share of a total amount of funding. Not all schools will attract the final Commonwealth share immediately. Most schools will move to that share over a period of transition years.

The Minister can determine other kinds of funding for any school under Part   5. The Minister can determine capital funding for non - government schools, which is ultimately provided to capital grants authorities and block grant authorities. The Minister can determine funding for schools in special circumstances or if the Minister is satisfied that prescribed circumstances apply in relation to schools. In addition, the Minister can determine additional adjustment funding for schools for transition years for the schools, in accordance with the regulations.

The Minister can also determine funding for non - government representative bodies for non - government schools. Non - government representative bodies are bodies that represent approved authorities for non - government schools. A block grant authority or non - government representative body is approved by the Minister.

The Minister may require an amount to be repaid, reduce an amount that would otherwise be payable, or delay making a payment, if an amount is owed to the Commonwealth under this Act (or other similar Acts) or there is a failure to comply with particular requirements.