Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund

Those that are eligible to apply for the CSEF are:

• families holding a valid means-tested concession card
• a student over 16 years who is considered a mature minor and holds a valid concession card (such as a Youth Allowance Health Care Card or Disability Support Pension Card).

A special consideration category also exists for refugee and asylum seeker families and students placed in temporary care.

Eligible means-tested cards

Means-tested concession cards must now be valid on either:

• the first day of Term 1 – 28 January
• the first day of Term 2 – 22 April

The full list of eligible concession and health care cards is available on the Services Australia website.

For Veterans' Affairs, gold cards are the only means tested cards for this type. This card must be sighted, and a photocopy taken by the school to confirm the expiry date and eligibility.

Cards that are not financially means tested are not accepted.

Criteria 1

The applicant must be one of the following:

1. a parent/carer (of the relevant student) who is:
   • on the first day of term one (28 January 2025) or the first day of term two (22 April 2025) an eligible beneficiary of either a Centrelink Health Care Card or a Pensioner Concession Card; or
   • an eligible beneficiary of a Veterans Affairs Gold Card; or
2. a temporary foster carer; or
3. a student is 16 years or older and holds a valid concession card (such as a Youth Allowance Health Care Card or Disability Support Pension Card).

The parent/carer must apply to the school before the end of the term.

Parents/carers who receive a carer allowance on behalf of a student, or any other benefit or allowance not income tested by Centrelink, are not eligible for the CSEF payment unless they also meet the above eligibility criterion.

Where the parent/carer is seeking eligibility based on holding a Centrelink Health Care Card or a Pensioner Concession Card, eligibility will be determined when the relevant concession card successfully validates with Centrelink on either the first day of term one or term two.

If the eligible card is in the name of the student, the fund is only granted to that student, not their siblings.

Criteria 2

For CSEF, students may be eligible for assistance if they attend a registered Victorian school. Typically, these students are aged between five and 18 years.

School is compulsory for all Victorian children aged between six and 17 years of age.

CSEF is not payable to students attending pre-school, kindergarten, TAFE or who are homeschooled.

Special consideration

A special consideration category exists for:

• families on a bridging visa, temporary protection visa, are in community detention or are asylum seeker families – a letter from Australian Red Cross or similar welfare institution, visa grant notice or ImmiCards is required as evidence.
• students in temporary out of home care arrangements, including statutory kinship care – a letter of support from the institution facilitating the arrangement (for example Mackillop Family Services) or the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing is required as evidence.

Permanent care arrangements such as permanent visas and permanent foster care do not meet the criteria for special consideration.

Applications for special consideration can be made through the standard application form and must be submitted by 4 July 2025.

Schools can accept applications from newly arrived refugee and asylum seeker students who enrol in Terms 3 and 4.

For these applications documentation confirming refugee/asylum seeker status, visa grant notice, ImmiCard or a welfare letter is required to be attached to the application form and a scanned copy emailed to csef@education.vic.gov.au for processing before 31 December 2025.

Payments amounts for 2025 are:

• $154 per year for eligible primary school students
• $256 per year for eligible secondary school students.

For ungraded students, the rate is determined by the Date of Birth

• $154 per year for students born on or after 1 July 2013
• $256 per year for students born on or before 30 June 2013.

Payments are made directly to the school and are tied to the student.

• from March onwards each year where the parent/carer’s concession card is assessed as valid on the first day of term 1; and
• until 4 July 2025 where the parent/carer’s concession card is assessed as valid at the end of term 2.

Payments are for the application year and cannot be claimed for previous years.

The Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) provides payments for eligible students to attend activities like:

• school camps or trips
• swimming and school-organised sports programs
• outdoor education programs
• excursions and incursions that are extracurricular as defined in the Parent Payment Policy
• graduations/valedictories.

The CSEF payment cannot be used towards books, stationery, school uniforms, before/after school care, formals or debutante balls.

Schools will need permission before allocating CSEF funds and a credit note will stay on the family account until the family advises the school how they want the funds allocated.

Year 7 and Prep students in government schools who are eligible for CSEF will receive financial help with the cost of school uniforms. For more information about this initiative, refer to State Schools' Relief.

Families who have more than one child at the same government school can combine (or pool) their CSEF to use on one child or for a specific activity (for example, a camp).

Submitting an application

Applications can be entered from 28 January 2025. Parents/carers wishing to apply for CSEF payments for 2025 must submit their application form to the relevant school by 4 July 2025.

However, a parent/carer will only be required to submit an application form to the school in the following circumstances:

• the parent/carer is applying for the CSEF payment for the first time – i.e. an application form was not lodged with the school in the previous year; or
• circumstances have changed – e.g. there has been a change in the care arrangement of the student, a change of name or CRN, or a new sibling has commenced at the school and the parent/carer wishes to apply for the CSEF payment for the new sibling.

Where a parent/carer is not required to submit a new application, schools can copy the previous year’s application on the CSEF system to the current school year.

Schools must retain application forms for a minimum of seven years.

CSEF applications may be audited by the department.

Application forms

Schools can accept and process applications until 4 July 2025.

• Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund application form (DOCX, 97KB)
• Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund application form – students aged 16 years and over (DOCX, 94KB)
• Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund application form – students aged 16 years and over requiring parent consent (DOCX, 93KB)

The CSEF system only allows one application per student. Parents/carers in shared custody situations (who both hold a concession card) must decide beforehand who applies for the CSEF at the school on behalf of the relevant student.

The CSEF is for the benefit of the parent who receives the CSEF.

Schools are not required to arbitrate this decision.

Schools can contact the department's CSEF helpdesk for advice on 1800 060 970 or at csef@education.vic.gov.au.

Given the timing of the CSEF payments to schools in term one, it is recognised that some families may have already paid up-front for this year’s camps, sports or excursion expenses.

In this scenario, the following options exist for schools to allocate the payment towards camps, sports and/or excursion expenses for the benefit of the eligible student.

In addition to allocating the payment towards remaining camps, sports and excursion expenses in that year:

• carry over the unused amount to be used on eligible activities in the following year.
• create a ‘family credit’ for the costs already paid. The credit can then be used towards other school expenses.
• Where a family credit is created, the school and family can agree for the credit to be applied to other expenses for the student. The school will need to be able to demonstrate via the family account statement that the CSEF payment was utilised towards camps, sports and excursion expenses for the benefit of the eligible student. It is up to the school whether they agree to this option.
• CSEF funds cannot be directly refunded to families.

Note: This credit note will stay on the family account until the family advises the school what they want this to be allocated to.

For any additional assistance or variation to this scenario please log a call with the DE Service Desk on 1800 641 943.

The school that the student is enrolled at and attending on the 28 February census date is the school that must process and receive the CSEF payment.

If a student transfers to another Victorian school, including where a student is transitioning to secondary school:

• unspent CSEF amounts should be transferred to the student’s new school**.
• if the unspent amount is minimal, the schools may agree that the funds are not transferred as long as the new school commits to providing the student with assistance to the value of the unspent amount.

For students completing year 12 or otherwise leaving the Victorian school system:

• schools may allocate unspent funds to the student's siblings attending the same school once the student leaves school. This is the only time at which CSEF payments can be used for siblings.
• remaining CSEF funds will stay with the school and may be used to assist any students in need with school-incurred costs for camps, sports activities and excursions.