Back to School Payment Scheme

The Back to School Payment Scheme, provides financial assistance to parents and guardians of children:

• enrolled in a Northern Territory (NT) school or
• registered for home-schooling.

The payment provides an entitlement for each student to receive educational items in term one of each school year.

What you get

You are entitled to receive $200 of educational goods and services for each child enrolled in a government or non-government NT school or preschool.

If your child is in transition to year 12, you will receive the entitlement in term one each year. The entitlement must be used by the end of term one.

If your child is in preschool, the entitlement is available throughout the year, but is only valid to the end of the first term in which they first enrol.

Using the entitlement

Schools decide what goods and services are on offer.

This may include the following items:

• school uniform, including hats, book bags
• textbooks
• stationery, including calculators, flash drives, school diaries
• school excursions
• student ID cards
• student photography
• school camps
• elective activities.

What is not covered

The entitlement can't be:

• used for:
  • voluntary parent contributions, including donations to the school
  • canteen purchases
  • cash, including refunds for purchased goods or services
• transferred:
  • between students
  • to another school
• returned to parents after term one if they authorised the funds to be used for activities or items in terms 2 to 4
• used to purchase goods and services from suppliers other than the school.

Claiming the entitlement

If your child is in transition to year 12, you can claim your entitlement from the school your child first attends during term one.

Items are available to purchase from the school only.

You don't have to produce any documentation to use the entitlement.

Conditions of use

The following conditions apply:

• refunds on goods or services are not available
• schools and school councils can make suggestions about items available for purchase from the school
• the goods and services must provide value-for-money and parents/students should be able to:
  • own the goods or
  • access services
• parents make the final decision about how they want to use the payment within those guidelines
• the entitlement is not transferable to another school.

Contact

Talk to your child's school for more information about the Back to School Payment Scheme.