Up to 60 per cent of families at some independent schools have asked for fee relief.
Trinity Grammar in Summer Hill is one of the first big private schools in Sydney to give a fee rebate to parents struggling to cope with the economic fallout of the coronavirus.
As schools prepare to transition back to face-to-face learning from mid-May, some are offering across-the-board relief; Trinity Grammar is giving a flat $1125 COVID-19 rebate, which will take the form of a credit on term two invoices.Others are deferring bills. Newington College is offering families a "no questions asked" fee second term deferral of 25 per cent until October and targeting fee relief at struggling families.
Catholic schools are also waiving fees for families in need. A spokesman for the Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta, which has about 32,000 families, said it was processing 600 applications from struggling families. "With the government’s decision not to allow decoupling of the financial arrangements of boarding schools and early childhood centres from the main school accounts, a number of these facilities are now facing imminent closure.
Last week, federal Education Minister Dan Tehan said the government "could look, potentially, at bringing some of those [scheduled] payments forward to help with cash flow".
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