Subject to the provisions of Chapter 25, a student may be approved for Away from Home entitlements where:
- the parent/s' occupations require them to spend a significant amount of time travelling long distances, with the result that the children have no fixed residence; or
- the occupation of the parent/s involves frequent, lengthy travel and the student is denied access to appropriate schooling because the parent/s is/are not normally resident at a fixed location during the school week, eg, a sole parent is an interstate transport driver.
Note: In a two parent family, both parents need to be itinerant for the student to be eligible. If one parent is stable in location, the family is not considered itinerant.
A significant amount of time would be 40 weeknights during the calendar year.
Eligibility is determined in the light of family movements during the course of the school year.
Where a parent's occupation necessitates constant movement and the family's home environment is in effect `mobile' (eg, a railway construction camp) and is constantly changing, Away from Home entitlements may be approved if:
- the student boards away from home; and
- for at least half the year, on a monthly, weekly or daily basis, the location of the student's permanent home is such that the student would not have reasonable access to that school.
Where families are not normally itinerant, but they are temporarily moved in their employment or must move several times in the course of a year to widely scattered localities in search of employment, Away from Home entitlements may be approved to enable the student to avoid frequent changes of school.
If a family temporarily resides in the locality in which any of its eligible students are boarding or spends some time in this locality as part of its regular movements, the following principles apply:
- where it would be reasonable to expect a student to cease boarding and rejoin her/his family, whether on an extended basis or for short periods on a regular basis, boarding benefits are not payable for those periods; and
- where the student cannot attend the school except as a boarder, or the school would charge full boarding fees anyway, the student remains eligible for the away from home rate.
Where a family has been accepted as itinerant for a year but takes up permanent residence during the course of that year at a fixed address which provides access to suitable schooling, any student in the family who has been eligible for Away from Home entitlements up to that point remains eligible for the remainder of the year, providing continuity of study rules are met.
Where the family undertakes two moves of the type specified above during first term, the family should be accepted as itinerant for that period.
Once a family has been accepted as itinerant for the first term on the basis of two moves during that period, assessment of eligibility for Away from Home entitlements in the remaining terms is based on the following guidelines:
- if at least one move occurs during any of the remaining terms, the family should be accepted as itinerant for the full year; or
- if no move occurs during any of the remaining terms, the student is ineligible for Away from Home entitlements after first term.
Where the family undertakes three or more moves during the first term, each of which would require a change of school for the student, the family should be regarded as itinerant for the full year.
Where the family undertakes four moves in the year spread over at least two terms, the family should be accepted as itinerant for the full year.
A family is not considered itinerant if:
- the family could be reasonably expected to maintain a fixed address because the movement required by working is over a limited area eg, within the metropolitan area or at no time more than 56 km from one centre offering adequate schooling; or
- the parent/s occupation requires a transfer every two or three years and the family could normally expect to spend at least one full year in a location but happens to be moved more than once in a school year.