OeAD-Calice: Ministry of Education gives green light for school events cancellation fund

The Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research gave the green light for the COVID-19 School Events Cancellation Hardship Fund today. The fund is endowed with 13 million euros. The OeAD-GmbH, as the national agency for education, has been commissioned to implement the fund.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic all school events throughout Austria were cancelled from 11 March 2020 until the end of the school year 2019/20. The aim of the school events cancellation fund is to cover the cancellation costs for multi-day school events with overnight stays that cannot be cancelled or postponed free of charge. The OeAD’s managing director Jakob Calice says: ‘We expect more than 7,000 applications from schools and will do everything we can to ensure that schools and parents get their money back quickly. To this end we have set up a five-step process.’

All schools under the School Organisation Act, federal agricultural and forestry schools and the forestry school of the Austrian Federal Government are eligible to apply. The OeAD also provides schools with legal guidelines and sample letter templates for support.

The schools act as collective applicants for the parents or legal guardians and confirm that the costs claimed were incurred in the context of approved school events in accordance with Section 3 of the COVID-19 School Events Cancellation Fund Act. Travel costs, accommodation, meals and admission fees, for example, can be reimbursed. School-leaving trips or private sports and language trips are not school-related events and therefore cannot be submitted.

Requirements for reimbursement:

• The school events cancellation fund provides support if postponements of multi-day school events or free cancellations are not possible.
• Costs for cancelled multi-day school events (with at least one overnight stay) between 11 March 2020 and 13 September 2020 (end of the school year depending on the federal province) that were agreed by the school forum or school committee are reimbursable.
• Schools or parents/legal guardians undertake to keep receipts of cancellation costs for two years and to present them on request.

Each application will be documented in detail by the OeAD. Calice explains: ‘Schools are required to attempt to postpone the event or cancel it free of charge first.’ Only if this fails an application can be submitted. If the contractual partners charge excessive cancellation fees, parents will not be left in the lurch and will have their costs refunded. In case that excessive cancellation fees have been charged we will consider a course of action together with the Financial Procurator's Office.’ Calice further emphasises: ‘Despite the difficult circumstances we appeal to companies to be fair and to be good partners for schools. It is important to continue to have a sustainable basis for cooperation between schools and companies in the future. The recommendations developed jointly by the Ministry and the professional association are a good basis for this.’

Guidance on the correct procedure is provided by an agreement between the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research and the Professional Association of Travel Agencies at the Austrian Chamber of Commerce. This agreement stipulates that no cancellation fees should be charged for trips that would have taken place before Easter, a maximum of 15% for trips from 14 April and a maximum of 10% of the booking costs for trips from mid-June, depending on the terms and conditions. ‘We would also prefer it if trips were only postponed and not cancelled. Unfortunately, this is not possible in all cases. The current recommendation is intended to provide clarity quickly. Tour operators and schools are given guidance on how to handle cancellations in an unbureaucratic manner so that we can then look to the future together,’ said Gregor Kadanka, chairman of the trade association.

To speed up the process the OeAD is currently concluding agreements with major tour operators who are following the recommendation of the professional association and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research. Schools will then have the possibility to apply to the OeAD for a refund in a fast-track procedure. Discussions are currently underway with SFA Sprach-, Bildungs- and Kulturreisen, H2 Cando and other companies.

Information, FAQs, sample templates, legal guidelines, etc. are available on the OeAD project website www.oead.at/schulstornofonds.