School Book Rental Scheme: Benefits & Grants Available

School Book covering

Further to the Blog Post How to Set Up a School Book Rental Scheme, here is some information on the grants available when investing in a School Book Rental Scheme.

What is a School book rental scheme?

School book rental schemes can alleviate the costs of purchasing text books for parents and Pupils in both primary and post primary schools. Effectively, it’s a rental scheme that “pools” the upfront costs of purchasing books for selected classes or set of curriculum books by amortising both the cost of purchase and depreciation of the books over a set period of time, normally 3 years. In general, the scheme is administered in each school by the school principal in association with the Parent Teachers Association (PTA)

What Grants are available?

A grant scheme is available for students to help with the cost of school books. The scheme is mainly aimed at pupils from low-income families and families experiencing financial hardship. Funding for the scheme comes from the Department of Education and Skills. Broadly speaking, students who may be eligible for assistance under the School Books Grant Scheme include:

Families that are mainly dependent on social welfare payments
Families on low incomes, (for example, those receiving Family Income Supplement, and the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance)
Families experiencing financial hardship because of particular circumstances (for example, where there is prolonged illness of a parent/guardian, addiction problems, etc.)
Students who are in the care of foster families under arrangements made by a Local Health Office and students participating in Youthreach, VTOS and Post-Leaving Certificate Courses are ineligible for assistance under the School Books Grant Scheme.

However, in the current economic climate the rental scheme is rising in popularity amongst the general school community.

The rates for schools in the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) programme are higher than those for non-DEIS schools. Payment of funding to be allocated to schools to provide assistance for books can be analyised as follows: (2011 Data)

Primary Schools: (As of April 2011)

The allocation to schools for books allows an additional per capita funding of:

Allocation to DEIS schools for books €21
Allocation to non-DEIS schools for books €11

Post Primary Schools (As of June 2011)

The additional per capita funding to be provided is:

Allocation to DEIS schools for books €39
Allocation to non-DEIS schools for books €24
Junior Certificate Schools Programme €60
Transition Year Programme €95
Leaving Certificate Applied Programme €151
Physics and Chemistry €13

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