Policy
The purpose of this policy is to ensure schools appropriately administer, and support families to access, the Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) so that a family’s financial circumstances are not a barrier to student participation.
Summary
- The Department of Education (department) administers the CSEF to help eligible families with the costs of camps, sporting activities, excursions and incursions.
- Schools must communicate to families the availability of CSEF.
- Schools must process applications for a CSEF payment by 3 July 2026. It is the school’s responsibility to ensure that all applications received are entered by the due date.
- To access the CSEF form and information sheets for families, translated into many languages, please refer to the Resources tab.
- Schools must use the funds for the benefit of the eligible family.
- CSEF is available to eligible families at both government and non-government schools.
Details
Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund expenditure
Payments are made directly to the school of an eligible family. Schools must use CSEF only for the student of the eligible family or for that student’s siblings at the same school. Where the application is for a student over 16 the CSEF payment can only be used for that student. Where the recipient student leaves the Victorian education system and there are remaining and unspent funds, these funds can be used for a sibling attending the same school.
If there is unspent CSEF funds for an eligible family and no siblings left at the school, the CSEF can be used to assist other students at the school with the cost of camps, sporting activities, excursions and incursions.
Leaving the Victorian school system includes students leaving school for further education such as TAFE, university or other vocational institutions.
Students that are home schooled are not eligible for CSEF. Schools are required to keep CSEF funds for 12 months from the time a student begins home-schooling or leaves the school system before completing year 12 in the event the student may return to school. If the student is home- schooled or does not re-enter the school system for more than 12 months, CSEF can be absorbed by the school to assist other students in need.
Year 7 and prep students in government schools who receive CSEF are eligible to receive financial help with the cost of school uniforms. For more information about this initiative, refer to State Schools' Relief.
Schools will need agreement with families before allocating CSEF funds and a credit will stay on the family account until the family advises the school how they want the funds allocated.
Families who have more than one child at the same school can combine (or pool) their CSEF to use on one child or for a specific activity (for example, a camp).
Some common examples of school-organised programs for which a CSEF payment may be used include:
- school camps/trips
- swimming extension activities and other school-organised sport programs
- outdoor education programs
- excursions/incursions that are extracurricular as defined in the Parent Payments policy
- graduations/valedictories.
The CSEF payment cannot be used towards:
- books
- stationery
- school uniforms
- before/after school care
- locker hire
- classroom and homework materials
- social events such as formals, debutant balls, school discos or end of year functions
- other expenses unrelated to camps, sports or excursions.
Schools
User access – school approver
Schools are responsible for:
- nominating staff as CSEF Approvers and/or Administrators:
- The School Approver endorses all the applications and is responsible for keeping the access of CSEF Administrator’s and Approver’s up to date and accurate. This includes removing staff that are no longer at the school.
The School Administrator is responsible for the administration of CSEF:
- communicating the availability of CSEF to eligible families
- accepting application forms from families by 26 June 2026
- entering all applications onto the CSEF System (staff login for processing by 3 July 2026
- ensuring any monies received from CSEF are used for the cost of eligible activities for the benefit of the recipient student of CSEF
- seeking clarification from families each year that they are still eligible before rolling over an application. This is a manual process that needs to be completed every year – the system will not rollover the applications automatically
- communicating to families as to what activities CSEF may be used for as soon as practical. It is the responsibility of the parent/carer and not the school to determine which activities the CSEF will be used for
- ensuring the details on the application are correct, and the completed forms are clear and are signed and dated by the applicant
- checking the CSEF portal on a regular basis and keeping up to date on the status of the applications
- retaining failed applications or those that received an error until their status has been confirmed with the department
- securely storing all CSEF records for the required length of time.
Applying for prep and year 7 uniform packs for eligible CSEF families with State Schools’ Relief.
Communication with parents/carers
Schools must communicate the availability of CSEF to their school community, including school newsletters andthe school website, and provide application forms to parents/carers.
The Resources tab in the CSEF policy contains the CSEF application forms and promotional flyers (translated in different languages) that schools can use to communicate with families.
Schools must take steps to ensure families are aware that applications for CSEF payments must be submitted by 26 June 2026.
Schools will need an agreement with parents/carers before allocating CSEF. A credit note will stay on the family account until the family advises the school how they want the funds allocated.
Processing applications
Schools must process applications for CSEF payments as set out in the guidance by 3 July 2026.
Multiple students from the same family can be listed on one application form. If a new sibling enrols at the same school and the CSEF has already been paid, the new sibling can still be added to the existing family application and will receive payment in the next payment batch.
Before processing a new application through the CSEF System (staff login , schools must sight and retain a copy of the parent/carer’s current concession card to ensure that the name and Centrelink Reference Number (CRN) on the CSEF application form matches the Centrelink concession card.
Expenditure and acquittal
Schools must follow the acquittal processes when accounting for the expenditure of CSEF payments.
Record keeping
Schools must securely store CSEF records for 7 years. Schools must securely store consent records for at least 2 years from the date the student leaves the school in a form that is auditable. For more information, refer to:
- Records Management
- Disposal Authority for Records of Common Administrative Functions , issued by the Public Records Office
- Your businesses obligations for Centrelink Confirmation eServices – Services Australia.
Definitions
CSEF – Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund
A payment administered by the department to schools for the purpose of paying costs of camps, sport and excursions for an eligible student.
Related policies
Reviewed 24 December 2025