Integration funding support
Students with disability, who are in mainstream classes in departmental schools and preschools and require moderate to high levels of adjustment, may be eligible to access integration funding support. Students who access this support must have educational needs that are directly related to their identified disability and cannot be met through the full range of school and local resources.
How can schools use these funds?
Funding is currently for staffing costs only.
Examples of the effective use of the allocation to support eligible students include:
- engaging additional teachers and school learning support officers (SLSOs) to assist with personalised learning and support for students in their classrooms
- providing release for classroom teachers to undertake professional learning relating to the funded student
- providing release for classroom teachers to evaluate and plan adjustments with parents and carers and other school staff.
Key messages
- In order to be eligible for integration funding support, students must have additional learning and support needs that cannot be met from existing school and local resources.
- The student profile, completed by the school learning and support team and the parent or carer, provides an objective summary of the student's educational needs which, in conjunction with their disability, determines the level of funding provided to the school to support each student.
- Principals have the responsibility for determining the most appropriate ways of using the funding to meet the identified learning and support needs of the targeted students.
- Adjustments delivered through integration funding support should be documented and regularly evaluated in conjunction with the student profile as part of the school’s approach to inclusive practice. This also assists in the process of providing evidence as part of the school’s approach to the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability.
- Schools who have received integration funding support do so on an annual basis. The funding must be used in the calendar year for which it is provided. The use of integration funding support is generally planned through the school’s learning and support team.
- Schools record the impact of integration funding support in their annual reflection of needs-based funding. This process supports the evaluation of impact on student outcomes and informs the school’s annual report.
Further information
For more information go to the Inclusive learning support website. Here you will find information including integration funding support for high school students and integration funding support for primary school students.