810. Hon ALISON XAMON to the Minister for Education and Training:
I refer to supplementary information provided by the minister during the 2018–19 budget estimates indicating that Western Australia has received over $10 million less federal government funding for students with disability for 2018.
(1) What is the impact of this funding shortfall on the overall funding levels for students with disability in Western Australian schools?
(2) Has the state government made up for the shortfall from state revenue?
(3) If no to (2), will there be any decrease in support available for Western Australian students with disability?
(4) When does the minister anticipate the commonwealth review will be finalised?
(5) At this stage, does the minister anticipate any funding increase as a result of the commonwealth review?
Hon ALANNA CLOHESY replied:
I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question. On behalf of the Minister for Education and Training, I provide the following information.
It is important to note that the 2018 figure provided as supplementary information was a commonwealth estimate provided to the Department of Education in November 2017.
(1) A targeted funding allocation will continue to be provided for eligible students with disability to meet their specific learning needs under the state’s student-centred funding model. The state combines the total commonwealth and state funding contributions for public schools and allocates funding according to the parameters of the student-centred funding model. This allows per student funding for students with disability to increase, even though the federal government’s contribution for students with disability is estimated to decrease.
(2) The Quality Schools agreement is being negotiated with the commonwealth government, and the federal funding for students with disability over the forward estimates remains unknown. However, the total federal funding for Western Australian public schools is projected to increase and will assist in meeting the decrease in federal funding for students with disability.
(3) Support for students with disability will continue despite a decrease in the federal funding.
(4) The 2018 funding will be reviewed as part of the commonwealth government’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook to reflect the current student cohort and may result in an update to the estimated figure.
(5) Any adjustment to funding will be based on changes to the student characteristics of the student cohort.