A fresh report commissioned by an independent schools industry body has estimated that Queensland's special assistance schools, which cater to students disengaged from mainstream education, may have saved state and federal governments as much as $416 million over the working lifetimes of their 2025 year 12 graduates alone, as the sector records its strongest enrolment figures in a decade.
What the report found about special assistance schools
The report, prepared by research firm McCrindle and released on Tuesday, was commissioned by industry body Independent Schools Queensland. It focused on the roughly 30 special assistance school providers operating across south-east Queensland, which together recorded around 11,000 enrolments and 2,000 year 12 graduates in 2025.
According to the report, re-engaging a single at-risk student delivers an estimated benefit of $226,100 to Queensland, once factors such as increased tax contributions, reduced reliance on welfare payments like JobSeeker, lower healthcare costs and reduced incarceration rates are taken into account.
"Student disengagement creates a measurable and compounding economic cost for the state," the report stated.
The calculations drew on the proportion of people at different education levels who fall into various cost categories. For instance, the report found that around 19 per cent of people aged 20 to 29 who left school after year 10 were experiencing mental health conditions, compared to 12 per cent among those who completed year 12. It also noted that 69 per cent of Australian prisoners had not completed education beyond year 10.
Dr Matthew White, a researcher at the Australian Catholic University who specialises in accessibility and attendance issues at Australian schools, acknowledged the difficulty of precisely measuring the true cost of early school leaving, noting that a complex range of factors shape individual outcomes.
A sector that has grown sevenfold in a decade
The special assistance school sector in Queensland has expanded dramatically, growing sevenfold over the past ten years. These schools are largely fee-free or carry very low costs, with the most recent national data, covering the 2023-24 financial year, showing average fees, charges and parent contributions across the approximately three dozen south-east Queensland campuses sat at around $460 per full-time equivalent student.
One of those schools is Y School Queensland Brisbane South, which enrols 180 students across two campuses in the southern Brisbane suburbs of Acacia Ridge and Parkinson. The school is designed specifically for young people who have disconnected from traditional schooling environments.
Students speak to the difference these schools make
Kiarra-Lee Rowe, now 19 and working as a first-year apprentice, graduated from Y School Queensland Brisbane South in 2025. Her path to that achievement was anything but straightforward. She was expelled from her previous school in year 10, then started, left and later rejoined Y School Queensland before finishing her studies.
"It's been a rough road for the majority of my family throughout school," she said. "Being able to sit there and say, 'no matter what, I did this, I completed something', and having that year 12 certificate at the end of it, it kind of means that I'm good enough."
Rowe said she was initially hesitant about enrolling at a special assistance school, worried it carried a stigma. Once she committed, however, her grades lifted from low Cs to Bs and occasional As, and she went on to represent her region in Australian rules football, travelling to Cairns in year 12 to compete.
"In the end, I decided to trust my gut and go with it, and from there I watched my life go up instead of down," she said.
Broader context for student disengagement
The report comes as Queensland families explore an increasing range of alternatives to mainstream schooling, including homeschooling, which has been growing in popularity across the state. However, Rowe noted that not every household has the capacity to support a student learning at home, making accessible, low-cost alternatives like special assistance schools critical for many families.
The McCrindle findings add to a broader national conversation about how schools across Australia can better support students at risk of falling through the cracks of the education system.
