Release of the National Report on Schooling in Australia 2024
25 February 2026 The full
National Report on Schooling 2024 has been published. It outlines the national policy for school education in Australia and reports against key performance measures for schooling.
ACARA progressively releases chapters of this report throughout the year in a commitment to support transparency and accountability by making information more accessible.
This release includes a new chapter about government funding of schools, as well as information on school income and school expenditure.
Each section of the report includes corresponding data portal
pages which provide interactive data visualisations to enable data breakdowns, including by state, territory, and equity group.
Some of the highlights include:
School funding – 2023–24 financial year
- Total recurrent government funding for schooling was $91.04 billion. This was made up of $61.88 billion (68.0%) from state and territory budgets and $29.16 billion (32.0%) from the Australian Government (Commonwealth) budget.
- Overall, 75.0% ($68.27 billion) of total recurrent government funding was allocated to government schools and 25.0% ($22.77 billion) to non-government schools.
- Total recurrent government funding was $26,140 per student in government schools and $15,262 per student for non-government schools.
- The bulk of state and territory funding (92.3%) was allocated to government schools, while 61.7% of Australian Government funding was allocated to non-government schools.
School income – 2024 calendar year
- The average school income per student was $20,368 in government schools, $22,067 in Catholic schools and $28,642 in independent schools.
- In government schools, state and territory governments provided 75.0% of total gross income, Australian Government funding accounted for 21.0%, and the remaining 4.0% came from fees, charges, parent contributions and other private sources.
- In Catholic schools, the Australian Government contributed 60.4% of gross school income and state and territory governments provided 14.8%. Fees, charges and private contributions made up 24.8% of Catholic sector income.
- In independent schools, income from fees, charges and parent contributions made up 46.6% of total school income, with income from other private sources contributing an additional 5.2%. Australian Government funding accounted for 38.4% of total gross income, and state and territory governments provided 9.8%.
School expenditure
- In government schools, average total recurrent expenditure (money spent for all school operations) in the 2023–24 financial year was $26,140 per student.
- In non-government schools, average total recurrent expenditure in the 2024 calendar year was $22,534 per student.
Capital expenditure – 2024 calendar year
Capital expenditure (money spent to buy or improve long-term fixed assets, such as renovating classrooms, or constructing a new library) was $5.28 billion in government schools, $2.15 billion in Catholic schools, and $3.90 billion in independent schools.
Release of the latest data on the My School website – February 2026 update
17 February 2026 The latest information on school attendance and post-school destinations has been released on ACARA’s
My School website.
ACARA has published data on 2025 Term 3 school attendance and 2024 post-school destinations, which covers where students have gone following high school.
The My School website provides information that helps parents and the community in understanding the performance of schools over time. It contains data on every school in Australia. This includes information on a school’s student profile, NAPLAN performance, funding, enrolment numbers and attendance rates.