THE Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Schools Office has provided a $2.2 million cash injection to its 57 schools, to spend on additional cleaning, hygiene products and casual staff.
Director of Schools Gerard Mowbray said the payments were a "first", and had come from contingency funds the CSO had been putting aside for a decade to respond to bushfire, earthquake, flood or storm.
"At a time when schools are under the pump financially we have increased our expectations of them and so we really wanted to provide a financial package of support," he said.
"We want schools to be fully and effectively operational over the next three, four, five, six months.
"We don't want any school to feel they are not being well resourced, or any parent or teacher to think we're only going to scrape by."
Schools will also be able to use the money to support normal operations, in the face of cancelled fundraising events and a drop in school fees.
He said of the 13,000 families whose children attend the diocese schools, 1200 had sought fee deferment or concession. The average fee concession being requested is 20 to 30 per cent.
"Because we have a reduced capacity to collect fees we don't want schools to be compromising what they're doing in response to COVID-19 or compromised in what they need to effectively operate classrooms."
Mr Mowbray said payments were based on the size of each school. The largest payment is $76,320 to St Pius X Adamstown, which has 1020 students.
The largest primary school, St Therese's New Lambton, has 606 students and will receive $52,632.
Primary schools will receive $12,500 if they have fewer than 150 students, $10,000 if they have between 151 and 500 students and $7500 if they have more than 501 students.
They will also receive a payment of $75, $65 or $60 per student depending on their size.
High schools will receive $15,000 if they have fewer than 500 students, $10,000 for between 501 and 800 students and $7500 for more than 801 students.
They will also receive a payment of $75, $60 or $55 per student depending on their size.
Schools received 70 per cent of their payment this week and will receive the remainder next term.
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