Assessing limited local school facilities for ABSTUDY Away from Home rate 010-02060090

Living Allowance at the Away from Home rate will be automatically paid to enable students to bypass a South Australian Special Rural School and Tribal Aboriginal/Anangu School in order to attend a larger secondary school.

Is the student's local school a South Australian Special Rural School and Tribal Aboriginal/Anangu School?

• Yes, student is automatically approved for the Away from Home rate. Go to Step 8
• No, go to Step 2

Living Allowance at the Away from Home rate is payable where the State/Territory education authority advises a school only offers a limited local program or facilities because it:

• does not offer a full range of years or grades
• does not provide adequate facilities or programs to enable a student to gain a Year 12 certificate or tertiary entrance score

A secondary school which is not listed as a limited local program school by the State/Territory education authority will normally be regarded as an appropriate government school irrespective of any claims about the adequacy of that school by a customer or parent.

Is the student's local school and year level listed on the Limited school list located on the Resources page as a limited school?

• Yes, student is automatically approved for the Away from Home rate. Go to Step 8
• No, go to Step 3

A State/Territory education authority can also determine that a particular school, not identified as a limited local program school, cannot offer an appropriate level of study to meet the needs of an individual student.

This situation is not common and usually only occurs in circumstances where an individual student shows academic ability that cannot be catered for at the local government school due to issues relevant to that school or geographic area. This could occur where a government school in a remote region caters predominantly for Indigenous students.

This determination is made by the State/Territory education authority on an individual basis and documentation to support the claim is necessary for approval of Away from Home rate.

Has the student provided documentation from the relevant State/Territory education authority to support the claim for approval of Away from Home rate?

• Yes, student is approved for the Away from Home rate, go to Step 8
• No, go to Step 4

The Away from Home rate of Living Allowance will not be paid:

• to dependent schooling students studying by distance education or correspondence
• to assist the student to bypass a government school offering the appropriate level of schooling school within reasonable travelling time or distance to attend another school of their choice
• because particular subjects which the student wants to study are unavailable at the nearby school
• Note: this does not include:
• special courses of the types defined in Assessing special courses for ABSTUDY Away from Home rate or
• courses to meet the special needs of students with disabilities defined in Assessing disability for ABSTUDY away from home rate
• where there is another government school within reasonable travelling time or distance (see Assessing ABSTUDY travel time and access for the away from home rate and access)
• specifically to enable a student to attend a non-government or religious school
• if the State or Territory education authority objects to the bypassing of the particular school or type of school involved
• to enable the student to attend a special course if the student lives within a reasonable travelling time or distance of another institution offering the applicable special course, or
• specifically to attend an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander school (unless the school offers an approved special Indigenous course)

Go to Step 5.

Go to Step 6.

In assessing claims to bypass local schools which do not come under these clauses, advise the applicant that:

• advice will be sought from the education authority concerned
• to enable this advice to be obtained they should provide the documentation required to support a claim for appropriate level of schooling
• they will be informed when a decision has been reached based on the advice received from the education authority

Record details of decision or discussion on a DOC.

Procedure ends here.

Each year Services Australia seeks from each State/Territory education authority a list of schools considered to offer only limited local school programs or facilities. This list will determine at each school:

• the years or grades of study which are considered to contain a full program
• the years or grades of study which are considered to be only a limited program

If an ABSTUDY claim is lodged and the list is not available for the year assistance is being sought, staff should look at alternative options to make an assessment:

• Can the student be granted under another auto-approved Away from Home criteria?
• Is the claim going to be rejected for another reason unrelated to the Away from Home criteria?
• Can the claim be held for a reasonable timeframe until the list becomes available?

If an alternative option is not viable and an assessment is required, for example, a student has lodged a claim to attend a selection interview at a boarding school, staff can refer to the current year's list to make an assessment. Staff must code a review to the ABSTUDY Smart Centre Processing Team (ABS) for 1st February in the year for which assistance is being sought so that the students record is checked against the latest list to ensure ongoing eligibility is met, in Customer First, create a manual review on the Review Registration (RVR) screen and complete the fields as follows:

• Service Reason: ABY
• Review Reason: REV (Manual Review)
• Due Date: 1 February in the year for which assistance is being sought
• Source: INT
• Date of Receipt: today's date
• Notes: 'Limited program schools list for study year not available at time of claim assessment. Ongoing eligibility to be confirmed. See OB 010-02060090.'
• Keywords: ACTABY and ABYSUP
• Workgroup: leave blank
• Position: leave blank
• Transfer To Region: ABS

The review will mature on the Due Date coded in the RVR activity. Workload Management will allocate the review for manual action.

Note: if there is any doubt regarding a school's eligibility to remain or be approved under the limited program criteria, escalate to Level 2 Policy Helpdesk via SSO for clarification to be sought. The Resources tab has a link to the Level 2 Policy Helpdesk.

If the student's local government school is not listed as having a limited program by the State/Territory education authority, the authority can assess each case on an individual basis.

The applicant should be asked to give the names of the schools and the years of study attended by the student during each of the two years preceding the year for which benefits are sought. The applicant should also provide a brief explanation detailing:

• the reason why the local government school cannot offer an appropriate level of schooling
• the course of study that the student will be undertaking at the other school

This information must be forwarded to the part of the State/Territory education authority that has previously agreed to determine such assessments for Services Australia - this should be at a Regional Directorate level or above. The request must include:

• the name and address of the student
• the details provided by the applicant of the previous two years of schooling and the reasons why the local school should be bypassed in order to attend the other school
• the name of the nearest government school within reasonable travelling time or distance of the student's home
• the name of the school the student will be attending

The State/Territory education authority will make a determination as to whether the local government schools within reasonable travelling time or distance can offer an appropriate level of schooling.

Has the education authority determined the local government school cannot provide an appropriate level of schooling?

• Yes, go to Step 8
• No:
• The student is not eligible for the ABSTUDY Away from Home rate due to limited local school facilities
• Record details of decision or discussion on a DOC
• Procedure ends here

Record the approval of Away from Home rate based on limited local school facilities on the Independent/Homeless/Away From Home Details (NIH) screen. Update:

• Action field, key 'AFH'
• Start/Reject Reason field, key 'ALF' (Local school not meeting academic needs)
• Start Date field, key the date from which the Away from Home rate has been granted

Record details on a DOC.