Capital Grants

The objectives of the Australian Government’s Capital Grants Program (CGP) are to:

• provide and improve school capital infrastructure, particularly for the most educationally disadvantaged students




• ensure attention to refurbishment/upgrading of capital infrastructure for existing students, while making provision for needs arising from new demographic and enrolment trends




• pursue the Commonwealth’s other priorities and objectives for schooling




• account for all capital funding provided under the Act to meet the expectations of the auditors.

The aims and objectives of the CGP are documented in the publication “Capital Grants Program Guidelines”, which is available below for downloading.

Around $2,900,000 per annum in total is normally made available for ACT non-government schools under this program. The maximum limit for a grant will normally be $1,000,000. However, for projects that are for the establishment of new schools, for new campuses, or (either wholly or primarily) for new education levels, funding of up to $1,500,000 for a project will be considered. Funding for projects is generally provided over a two to three year period which means that prospective applicants may have to borrow funds to finance projects in the interim.

Grants for capital expenditure must be used for the following:

• investigating the need for:
  i) schools in particular areas, or
  ii) schools of particular kinds in particular areas, or
  iii) buildings or other facilities (or parts of buildings or other facilities), or equipment;




• purchasing land, with or without buildings (or parts of buildings);




• planning for the erection, alteration, extension, demolition or refurbishment of a building or other facility (or part of a building or other facility);




• developing or preparing land for building or other purposes;




• erecting, altering, extending, demolishing or refurbishing a building or other facility (or part of a building or other facility);




• installing or upgrading water, electricity or any other services;




• providing equipment, including information technology (as part of a broader capital project unless special circumstances exist);




• providing furniture (as part of a broader capital project unless special circumstances exist);




• providing library materials or obtaining services and goods for cataloguing a library (or part of a library) (as part of a broader capital project unless special circumstances exist);




• any other expenditure prescribed by the Regulation.

• facilities which have religious worship as a principal purpose;




• facilities in a co-educational school where those facilities will not, as far as practicable, be equally available to male and female students at the school;




• where retrospective approval is sought (generally after a contractual arrangement to commence the project has been entered into);




• projects proposed to be undertaken solely by parents and friends;




• facilities where the majority of the use will be by full fee paying overseas, or other unfunded students attending a ‘for profit’ section of the school;




• facilities that are principally for pre-primary education, ie for students below the prescribed state/territory school starting age or where the facility is not in a formal school setting (for example, a school’s attached Early Leaning Centre would not be eligible for CGP funding)

• Capital Grants Program Guidelines: View DOCX/PDF