This Act has been repealed and is no longer in force. It is retained for historical reference.
Jurisdiction
Commonwealth
Act Number
134 of 1976
Collection
act
Plain English Summary
4/10 complexity
States Grants (Schools) Amendment Act 1976 — Plain English Summary
What does this law do?
This Act makes targeted financial and administrative changes to two earlier laws that govern Commonwealth grants (funding payments) to Australian states for schools: the States Grants (Schools) Act 1972 and the States Grants (Schools) Act 1976. In short, it updates the dollar amounts the Commonwealth can pay to the states for school-related building projects and programs, and tidies up some technical wording in those earlier laws.
Who does it affect?
State governments — they receive the grant money from the Commonwealth
Government and non-government (private/Catholic) schools across all six states — the funding ultimately flows to them
Students in those schools, particularly those in disadvantaged schools, schools for students with disabilities ("special schools"), and schools with migrant education needs
What are the key changes?
Part II — Changes to the 1972 Act:
Increases the cap on what the Commonwealth Minister can authorise in payments to states for school building projects before 1 July 1977:
Sourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.
Non-government schools: up to $41.4 million in total
Replaces the funding schedule — each state's maximum building grant is updated with new dollar figures (e.g. NSW gets up to ~$84.4 million total; Tasmania ~$7.8 million)
Cleans up language in the 1972 Act — for example, replacing "Commonwealth Statistician" with "Australian Statistician" (a name change for that official), converting wordy date formats like "the first day of July, One thousand nine hundred and seventy-three" to simply "1 July 1973", and removing redundant phrases like "of this Act"
Repeals Part III of the 1972 Act entirely
Part III — Changes to the 1976 Act:
Increases several funding caps, including:
A cap raised from $400,000 to $459,500
Another from $860,000 to $986,500
Another from $3.587 million to $4.119 million
Replaces all eight funding schedules with updated figures covering:
Building and equipment grants for government schools (~$262.5 million nationally)
Building grants for non-government schools (~$12.4 million)
Per-student assistance rates for non-government schools (ranging from $76–$223 per primary student and $113–$355 per secondary student, depending on the school's funding level)
Disadvantaged schools programs (~$17.9 million)
Special schools (for students with disabilities) (~$12.8 million)
Special education teacher training (~$7.5 million)
Development and service activities (~$9.2 million)
Cancels any existing directions (administrative instructions) made under two specific provisions of the 1976 Act, effective immediately upon this Act commencing — but without undoing anything those directions had already done
Why does it matter?
This law is essentially a funding update — it adjusts the money the Commonwealth promises to send to the states for their schools. Because the figures in the original Acts were fixed at specific dollar amounts, Parliament needed to pass this amendment to increase them (likely to account for inflation and growing school populations). It also reflects a broadening of school funding policy by including categories like migrant education, disadvantaged schools, and special education — programs that go beyond simple building grants.