“That ICPA Qld lobbies the Minister for Education and The Arts (Queensland) and the Queensland Department of Education (DoE) to extend the Living Away From Home Allowance Scheme (LAFHAS) to include Queensland students attending approved non-state boarding schools in Adelaide, South Australia.”
The Living Away From Home Allowance Scheme (LAFHAS) supports eligible Queensland families whose children must live away from home to access secondary education at state or non-state schools.
Currently, the scheme supports families with children attending schools within Queensland and also provides specific exemptions for some non-state schools in northern New South Wales. This provision recognises that families living near the border may reasonably access schooling across state lines.
Families residing in the Channel Country region of Queensland are geographically closer to Adelaide than to Brisbane. For these families, Adelaide is often the most practical and accessible location for boarding school. However, under the current LAFHAS guidelines, families choosing this option are not eligible for support.
Although the number of families affected is small, extending LAFHAS eligibility to approved non-state schools in Adelaide would provide greater equity and allow families in this remote region to choose the most appropriate schooling option for their circumstances, rather than being forced to select institutions significantly further away due to current policy restrictions.
Providing similar consideration for families near the South Australian border, as has been done for those near the New South Wales border, would create a fairer and more consistent approach for geographically isolated Queensland families.
