Financial support is now available for school communities impacted by the major flooding events in the Northern Rivers with access to up to $1,000 for teachers and $500 for students to replace education materials.
The Minister for Education and Early Learning said the funding was part of the $67 million Education Flood Recovery Package with targeted support for public school teachers and students in the Lismore, Ballina, Byron, Kyogle, Richmond Valley, Clarence Valley and Tweed local government areas.
The Minister, Sarah Mitchell said the recovery grants would help to reduce the financial burden on students and teachers as affected people continue to rebuild.
“Families can use the student support for school-related expenses such as uniforms, books, pencils, lunch boxes or excursions, recognising that many students in these communities have experienced severe disruption,” Ms Mitchell said.
“For teachers, these funds can be used to continue replacing learning resources, supplies and educational materials,” she said.
“Non-teaching school staff are also eligible for grants of up to $500”.
Ms Mitchell said the Government knew the community was continuing to deal with the trauma from the devastating floods and she wanted to provide assurance to the students that they will be supported to continue working towards reaching their goals.
She said the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) was working in direct consultation with principals and executives to document the challenges being faced by students, particularly HSC students.
“This will include specific information about each student, the progress they had made on their project, performance or body of work, and the impact on the work itself,” she said.
The Minister for Emergency Services and Flood Recovery, Steph Cooke said the NSW Government had committed $1.6 billion to the flood clean-up and recovery effort.
“Our educators need all the help they can to return to normal operations and provide the best learning environment for their students following this unprecedented disaster,” Ms Cooke said.
She said the financial support for staff would be available until 30 June this year while families will be able to access their funds through the remainder of the 2022 and 2023 school years.
Ms Cooke said work was continuing to repair and rebuild the physical infrastructure at 21 schools significantly impacted by the floods.
“The Department of Education is working closely with the school communities and across government to ensure students are back on site and learning in classrooms,” she said.
