Equity (Social Disadvantage) (Reference 11)
Funding for Equity (Social Disadvantage) provides individual support for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, increasing with the level of disadvantage at the school.
Students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds often fall behind their peers when they enter the education system. Increased funding for schools has proven to raise educational outcomes, particularly for socially disadvantaged students. Schools will use Social Disadvantage funding to deliver tailored educational programs to meet the needs of student cohorts.
Equity (Social Disadvantage) loading allocates funding based on parental occupation, parental education, living arrangements, and the level of disadvantage in a school. Students with the highest level of need will receive the most funding to ensure schools have sufficient resources to support them. The loading is needs-based, however, to increase year-on-year stability for schools – a floor on negative funding changes and a weighted rolling average is applied to this loading.
Whilst having similarities to the former Student Family Occupation (SFO) index, the Equity (Social Disadvantage) funding contains some important differences:
- Social Disadvantage utilises both the Student Family Education (SFE) and SFO index, further strengthening the targeting of existing and new equity funding.
- The median threshold previously used under the SFO for equity no longer exists.
- All students identified with high needs will be provided with funding, including those students who are in out-of-home care.
Eligibility
All school types are eligible. Students identified with high needs will be provided with funding at school level.*
Funding will be calculated at the Indicative budget cycle only. Funding is allocated as cash and credit funding. From 2026 the credit and cash composition will be altered to reflect a 90/10 split, the credit portion will be altered from 50% to 90% and the cash portion will alter from 50% to 10%.
How Social Disadvantage is identified
The level of Social Disadvantage is measured through the student’s Student Family Occupation and Education (SFOE), which is a combination of their SFO and SFE categories. The matrix below in Table 1 depicts the possible SFOE categories a student may have. These categories determine the Disadvantaged backgrounds and Social Disadvantage students would be categorised in. There are 2 levels of Social Disadvantage loadings available, depending on the student’s level of need:
- Level 1: For students with parents who are unemployed with below a diploma level education or have lower skilled jobs with very low or low education, and students who are in out-of-home care.
- Level 2: For students with parents who have various combinations of medium and low skilled jobs and education levels or are unemployed with a diploma level education.
Table 1
The letters (A to U) in the far right columns reference SFO categories
| CASES21 Code | Education Category | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | B | C | D | N | U | ||
| 0 | SFE Not Stated/Unknown | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 | SFE Year 9 or below | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2 | SFE Year 10 or equivalent | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 3 | SFE Year 11 or equivalent | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 4 | SFE Year 12 or equivalent | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 5 | SFE Certificate I to IV | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 6 | SFE Advanced Dip/Diploma | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 7 | SFE Bachelor degree or above | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
NOTE: Students listed in CASES21 as being in Living Arrangement A (out-of-home care) will attract Level 1 Funding regardless of their SFOE category.
The density of need according to each school’s new SFOE index will further weigh the Social Disadvantage loadings.
To calculate the SFO index, the parents' occupations are categorised and weighted according to the categories found in Table 2 below.
Data regarding occupational categories and student living arrangements are collected each year as part of the August census.
While schools can access Panorama data, this is not used for SRP funding purposes. Only data collected at census is used for SRP funding.
Table 2
| Category | Occupation Grouping | Weighting |
|---|---|---|
| A | Senior management in large business organisation, government administration and defence, and qualified professionals | 0.00 |
| B | Other business managers, arts/media/sports persons and associate professionals | 0.25 |
| C | Tradesmen/women, skilled office, sales and service staff | 0.50 |
| D | Machine operators, hospitality staff, assistants, labourers and related workers | 0.75 |
| N | Unemployed & pensioners (for 12 months or longer) | 1.00 |
Data recorded in the August census as 'unknown' is allocated to the SFO density category as ‘Occupation Group A’ and attracts a zero weighting.
For detailed categorisation of SFO occupational categories please refer to the link below:
Student Family Occupation Education
SFO, SFO and SFOE index calculation
The SFO index is then calculated using the method below:
SFO calculation = (Number of students × Weighting for each occupational category)/Total number of students based on the occupational groupings and weightings in Table 2
To calculate the SFE index, the parent’s educational qualification is categorised and weighted according to the categories found in Table 3 below. Data regarding educational qualifications is collected annually as part of the August census.
Table 3
| CASES21 Code | Qualification Grouping | Weighting |
|---|---|---|
0 | Not stated/Unknown | 0.00 |
7 | Bachelor's degree or above | 0.00 |
6 | Advanced diploma/Diploma | 0.40 |
5 | Certificate I to IV (inc. trade certificate) | 0.50 |
4 | Year 12 or equivalent | 0.40 |
3 | Year 11 or equivalent | 0.70 |
2 | Year 10 or equivalent | 0.90 |
1 | Year 9 or equivalent or below | 1.00 |
NOTE: CASES21 Code 8 is No non-school qualification and defaults to the highest year of school completion.
The SFE index is then calculated using the method below:
SFE calculation = (Number of students × Weighting for each educational category)/Total number of students
To determine the SFOE index with the SFO and SFE indices, the following calculation is used:
SFOE calculation = (SFO index + SFE index)/2
Example: If a school has an SFO of 0.6342 and an SFE of 0.6156, the SFOE index would be 0.6249.
How social disadvantage funding is calculated
Social Disadvantage funding is allocated to schools based on the number of eligible students. Measures are applied to ensure funding remains stable while reflecting the need profile of current and recent student cohorts. A weighted rolling average is based on the current year and the following 2 years preceding will be used to determine the inputs to calculate Social Disadvantage funding allocations. The weightings are 70% of the current year, 20% of the prior year, and 10% of the year before that will be applied to the campus SFOE index and the number of eligible Level 1 and 2 students.
To determine how much Social Disadvantage funding a school will receive, the following method is used (weighted accordingly for the current year and the 2 previous years):
- The school’s SFOE is used to calculate the rate of Social Disadvantage loading each student will attract. Where a school’s SFOE is at or below the Minimum SFOE threshold, the minimum rate of each loading will be applied and, where it is at or above the Maximum SFOE threshold, each student attracts the Maximum rate for their loading. (Thresholds and rates can be found in Table 4).
- For schools with an SFOE between the Minimum SFOE threshold and the Maximum SFOE threshold, the rate will be tapered based on their SFOE index. To determine the taper, the following calculation is used:
Taper = ((Campus SFOE − Minimum SFOE threshold) / (Maximum SFOE threshold − Minimum SFOE threshold))
This is then applied to each loading rate by:
Minimum funding rate + (Taper × (Maximum funding rate − Minimum funding rate))
- Once the Social Disadvantage loading rates are determined for the school, it is multiplied by the number of enrolled students eligible for either the Level 1 loading or Level 2 loading. The enrolment is based on the students recorded in the August census of the preceding year.
- The school’s overall Social Disadvantage funding is calculated by combining both the total Level 1 and Level 2 loadings for eligible students.
- To further reduce negative funding variability, a $90,000 floor on negative funding changes is applied to a school’s Social Disadvantage funding allocation from one year to the next. This means that a school’s Social Disadvantage funding allocation will not be reduced by more than $90,000 year-on-year.
| 2026 actual | 2025 actual | 2024 actual | 2026 weighted (70%) | 2025 weighted (20%) | 2024 weighted (10%) | Weighted average | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SFOE | 0.6021 | 0.5313 | 0.5189 | 0.4215 | 0.1063 | 0.0519 | 0.5797 |
| Level 1 | 166 | 174 | 160 | 116.2 | 34.8 | 16 | 167 |
| Level 2 | 118 | 140 | 144 | 82.6 | 28 | 14.4 | 125 |
Example of Loading calculations for a primary school (excluding the floor):
- Level 1 student: ($1,443 + ((0.5797 − 0.3397) / (0.6192 − 0.3397)) × ($5,792 − $1,443)) × 167 enrolments = $864,623
- Level 2 student: ($722 + ((0.5797 − 0.3397) / (0.6192 − 0.3397)) × ($2,898 − $722)) × 125 enrolments = $323,810
- Total Social Disadvantage funding: $864,623 + $323,810 = $1,188,433
Table 4
| Minimum SFOE threshold | Maximum SFOE threshold | Level 1 student minimum rate | Level 1 student maximum rate | Level 2 student minimum rate | Level 2 student maximum rate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary | 0.3397 | 0.6192 | $1,443 | $5,792 | $722 | $2,898 |
| Secondary | 0.3397 | 0.6192 | $1,282 | $5,142 | $642 | $2,572 |
| Special | 0.4825 | 0.7336 | $1,443 | $5,792 | $722 | $2,898 |
| Language | 0.3397 | 0.6192 | $1,443 | $5,792 | $722 | $2,898 |
*The minimum funding allocation = $5,000
The enrolment is based on the numbers of Level 1 and 2 students recorded annually in the August census of the preceding year. Data for 2026 is calculated using August 2025 census data submitted by schools and is not adjusted for the 2026 calendar year. The rolling weighted average also relies on August census data from the 2 periods prior (2024 and 2023).
Equity (Social Disadvantage) funding displayed in the Student Resource Package (SRP) reports
Funding calculated through the Equity (Social Disadvantage) formula is displayed in the SRP reports under the section titled Education State (Including Additional Gonski).
*The equity calculation for Parkville College is undertaken outside the standard formulation outlined in this section.
Equity (Social Disadvantage) extraordinary growth
For schools that experience a significant growth in enrolments in the February census compared to the SFOE census held in August of the preceding years, Social Disadvantage (SD) Extraordinary Growth line funds the percentage growth more than 50% if the enrolment growth is higher than a threshold (Threshold for secondary schools = 20 and for all other school types = 10). Funding rates are the same as the rates for Equity (Social Disadvantage).
Additionally, Equity (Social Disadvantage) Extraordinary Growth funding is provided to secondary campuses in their first 6 years of operation by reducing the enrolment growth threshold 50% to 0% for these settings only for a duration of their first 6 years.
Reviewed 31 December 2025