Private Schools Conditional Integration Act 1975

If the integration agreement in respect of the school so provides, the proprietors of an integrated school may enter into an agreement with the parents or other persons accepting responsibility for the education of a child providing that, as a condition of the enrolment and attendance of that child at that school, the parents or other person shall pay attendance dues.

The said dues shall be established in respect of such school or group of schools, and at such rates, and subject to such conditions, as may be approved from time to time by the Minister, by notice in the Gazette.

Revenue received by the proprietors from attendance dues shall be used solely for the purpose of paying in respect of the school or group of schools in respect of which it is received for such improvements to the school buildings and associated facilities as may be required by any integration agreement or integration agreements pursuant to section 40(2)(c), or for such capital works as may be required by the Minister pursuant to section 40(2)(d), or for meeting debts, mortgages, liens, or other charges associated with the land and the buildings that constitute the premises of the school or schools.

No revenue received by the proprietors from attendance dues shall be used to provide or improve the school buildings and associated facilities to a standard higher than that approved from time to time by the Secretary as appropriate for a comparable State school.

Should any proprietor use any revenue from attendance dues for any purpose other than one permitted by this section, the Minister may, notwithstanding anything in the integration agreement, by notice in the Gazette, withdraw the right to charge attendance dues, and the controlling authority shall thereafter, while the withdrawal continues, be required to permit the attendance of children without the payment of attendance dues. The Minister may at any time, by notice in the Gazette, cancel any such withdrawal.

Should any parent or other person who has accepted the responsibility for the education of a child, and has pursuant to subsection (1) entered into an agreement to pay attendance dues, fail to make such payment, any payment not so made shall be recoverable from that parent or person in any court of competent jurisdiction as a debt due to the proprietors.

Any such failure to make payment shall constitute grounds for the principal of the school to suspend the child from attendance at that school and to remove his name from the school register:

Each proprietor who is permitted to charge attendance dues shall keep accounts in a manner approved by the Secretary showing total receipts of dues and the true disposition of the revenue. These accounts shall be balanced at a date each year approved by the Secretary, and shall be audited by a qualified auditor (within the meaning of section 35 of the Financial Reporting Act 2013). The proprietor shall send a true copy of the accounts together with the auditor’s report on them to the Secretary by a date to be approved by the Secretary.