Published by SESI Care Services · Updated September 2026 · 4-minute summary
Quick answer: Core Supports can pay for a support worker to be with your child through the school holidays, one to one or in a group, under assistance with social and community participation, along with personal care, help at home and transport. It cannot pay the program fee: the list of supports that are not NDIS supports excludes “fees and payments for outside school hours care”, naming “vacation care and school holiday programs” specifically, plus entry tickets and memberships. A disability provider’s group program billed as community participation is fundable; a mainstream vacation care fee is not, even where your child needs support to attend. Book early, and check your balance: from 1 October 2026 funding for social, civic and community participation is being progressively reset as plans are reassessed or renewed.
Key takeaways
- Core Supports is flexible across its categories, so daily living and community participation funding can usually be shifted to cover a heavier fortnight.
- The support is funded, the activity is not. The NDIS pays the worker’s time. You pay the entry fee, the ticket and the membership.
- A “school holiday program” fee is excluded by name, but a group support run under community participation pricing is a different thing with a different rule.
- Group sessions cost each person a share of one hourly rate, and a public holiday hour costs more than double a weekday one. The summer break contains four.
- Short term respite (formerly short term accommodation) is separate again, generally funded up to 28 days a year, in Core as flexible funding.
- Community participation funding is being reset from 1 October 2026, phased in plan by plan, so last holidays’ budget may not be next holidays’.
- Ask four to six weeks out. Availability in late December and January is the tightest of the year.
Victorian school holiday dates for the rest of 2026 and 2027
Most families underestimate the summer break. On the Victorian government’s published school term dates it runs about twenty-eight weekdays, more than a full month of working days.
| Break | Last day of term | Students back at school | Weekdays to cover |
|---|---|---|---|
| Term 3, 2026 | Friday 18 September 2026 | Monday 5 October 2026 | 10 |
| Summer 2026 to 2027 | Friday 18 December 2026 | Thursday 28 January 2027 | about 28 |
| Term 1, 2027 | Thursday 25 March 2027 | Monday 12 April 2027 | 11 |
| Term 2, 2027 | Friday 25 June 2027 | Monday 12 July 2027 | 10 |
| Term 3, 2027 | Friday 17 September 2027 | Monday 4 October 2027 | 10 |
| Term 4, 2027 | Friday 17 December 2027 | Term 1, 2028 | summer break begins |
Teachers return before students, which is why the 2027 year starts on Wednesday 27 January for staff and Thursday 28 January for students. Schools set their own pupil-free days, and Catholic and independent schools their own dates, so confirm yours.
Four Victorian public holidays fall inside that summer break: Christmas Day, Boxing Day on Saturday 26 December with an additional holiday on Monday 28 December, and New Year’s Day.
What Core Supports can pay for during the holidays
The NDIA describes Core Supports as three categories: assistance with daily life, consumables, and assistance with social and community participation. Its guidance on what core supports are says that “because your core supports funding is flexible, you can use the total amount in this budget to buy NDIS supports across and within the support categories”. Holiday weeks rarely look like term weeks, so that matters.
In practice it covers a worker with your child at the pool, the park, a library program or a friend’s place; personal care during hours that in term time happened at school; transport to and from activities; help at home on the days you stay in; and skill building that only fits in the holidays, like practising a bus route, which sits closer to life skills development. If the goal is connection rather than coverage, community participation support is the category doing the work, and it is the one the 2026 changes touch.
What it will not pay for
This is where families get caught, at the point of booking. The excluded list rules out, in its own words:
- “Fees and payments for outside school hours care. This includes before school, after school, student free days, vacation care and school holiday programs.”
- “Tickets to music, theatre, cinema, sporting events, and conference fees or entrance fees”
- “Membership and entry to a recreational club and standard gym equipment”
The NDIA’s social and recreation support guideline puts the principle in one line: “You’ll need to pay for the costs of the activity that everyone would pay for, such as membership or entrance costs.”
There is no NDIS support item for the worker’s own admission either. A Victorian Companion Card is the usual answer at participating venues, and our guide to low-cost community activities across Victoria covers the card and places that cost nothing to walk into.
The mainstream and community supports guideline sets the boundary the other way too: mainstream services “may need to adjust their supports to make them suitable for people with disability”, while the NDIS covers “the extra supports children need because of their developmental delay or disability”.
Are holiday programs fundable, and under what item?
Both, depending on what you are actually buying.
A mainstream vacation care place is not fundable. The fee is on the excluded list by name.
A disability provider’s group program usually is, because it is not vacation care. It is assistance with social and community participation delivered in a group, claimed under the standard items. The NDIA’s group-based supports pricing sets the rule plainly: “The hourly rate for group activities is divided evenly by the number of participants in the group.”
A provider may also claim a small hourly centre capital cost, where a centre is available for the whole session, plus separately agreed non face to face time. Both belong in your service agreement in advance, not on an invoice afterwards. Where the program runs as a Program of Support, the provider can claim for agreed sessions “whether or not they actually do attend, unless a participant has given notice to exit”, so read the exit terms first.
These are the national price limits for the standard one to one item, from the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27, effective 1 July 2026:
| When | Support item | Price limit per hour |
|---|---|---|
| Weekday daytime | 04_104_0125_6_1 | $73.58 |
| Weekday evening | 04_103_0125_6_1 | $81.07 |
| Saturday | 04_105_0125_6_1 | $103.54 |
| Sunday | 04_106_0125_6_1 | $133.50 |
| Public holiday | 04_102_0125_6_1 | $163.46 |
Read the last row again before planning an outing on 28 December. Six hours one to one on a public holiday is close to a thousand dollars of Core Supports; the same six hours on a weekday in a group of three is a fraction of that. Our comparison of group activities and one to one support covers when each is the better choice rather than just the cheaper one.
Respite, short term respite, and which one sits where
Short term respite is what the NDIA renamed short term accommodation to in October 2025, putting the emphasis on the break rather than the building. Its guideline says it covers standard accommodation plus “supports to help you do everyday activities”, that the NDIA “generally fund[s] up to 28 days of short term accommodation per year, for up to 14 days at a time”, and that it sits “in your plan as flexible funding in your Core budget”.
Everything else people call respite is usually ordinary community participation or daily living support that happens to give a carer some hours back. Same Core budget, no 28-day figure, no overnight stay.
The practical difference is that short term respite normally has to be in the plan already, because the NDIA weighs whether informal supports have gaps, including “breaks, like school holidays, where you’ll need extra support from your primary informal supports”. Community participation hours are more often already there and simply need reallocating. SESI does not deliver short term respite or accommodation-based supports; we deliver community participation, personal care and household support in person across Victoria, including the Clyde and Clyde North area.
What changed in 2026, and why the next break may look different
The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’s reform timeline says that from 1 October 2026, “participant support budgets for social, civic and community participation supports and capacity building daily activities are progressively reset as plans are reassessed or renewed”. The NDIA says the same on Securing the NDIS for future generations, with eating and drinking assistance, education, employment and disability-related health supports excluded.
Three things follow:
- Nothing changes in your plan on 1 October 2026 itself. The reset arrives with your next reassessment or renewal, so two families in the same street can be on different footing for the same holidays.
- Community participation is the category affected. Personal care, home and living, modifications, mobility equipment and consumables sit outside it.
- From 1 February 2027, unspent funds will not carry over into a renewed plan. Saving community participation funding through the year to spend in one summer block stops working then.
The legislative detail is in our guide to the 2026 NDIS changes. If a reassessment falls before a long break, our plan reassessment checklist covers the evidence that carries weight. Name holiday needs there rather than assuming last year’s figure repeats.
Booking ahead, and worker availability over the break
Support workers take leave in January too. The families who get the roster they want ask in November.
- Four to six weeks ahead for the summer break; two to three is usually enough for a term break.
- Ask specifically about the public holidays. Some providers do not roster them at all.
- Confirm which workers, not just how many hours. A long break is a poor time to meet three new people, particularly if change of routine is already the hard part.
- Get the cancellation terms in writing. Short notice cancellation rules apply to holiday bookings like any other.
- Check the balance, not the plan. Ask your plan manager or the portal what is left in community participation before committing a fortnight.
Building a week that is not only supervision
Coverage is what a lot of the funding is for. It is also a waste of a rare stretch of unstructured time if it is all the week ever is.
- One or two anchor days. Same activity, same time, every week. Predictability does more for most children than variety.
- One skill day. Something hard to practise in term time: catching a bus, buying lunch, getting ready without prompting.
- One social day, ideally in a group with the same few people each time. Friendships form there, not at one large event.
- One quiet day at home with support rather than out. A recovery day is not a wasted one.
- Something your child chose. A plan built entirely by adults gets resisted by about day four.
Write it down for whoever is rostered, so each day builds on the one before.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use NDIS funding to pay for a school holiday program?
Not the program fee. The NDIS excluded list covers “fees and payments for outside school hours care” and names vacation care and school holiday programs directly. What Core Supports funds is a worker with your child, one to one or in a group run as community participation. A group costs each person a share of one hourly rate, which is why it stretches further.
Is respite the same as short term accommodation?
Short term accommodation was renamed short term respite in October 2025. It is the overnight support, generally funded up to 28 days a year and 14 days at a time, in Core as flexible funding. Day support that gives a carer a break is ordinary community participation, from the same budget but with no day limit.
Why does a group program cost less per hour than one to one?
Because the hourly price limit is set per group and divided evenly between everyone attending, while one to one is charged at the full rate for one person.
Do I have to pay for the support worker’s ticket?
There is no NDIS support item for it, and the NDIS does not fund your child’s ticket either. A Companion Card covers the companion’s entry at participating Victorian venues.
Will my community participation funding be cut in 2026?
Budgets for social, civic and community participation are being progressively reset from 1 October 2026, applied as each plan is reassessed or renewed rather than to everyone on one day. Personal care, home and living, modifications, mobility equipment and consumables are not part of it.
Can I save funding through the year to spend over summer?
Within a plan, yes, and many families do. From 1 February 2027 unspent funds will not carry over into a renewed plan, so a saved balance has to be used before the plan ends rather than banked across plans.
Talk to SESI
If you are looking at a long break and working out what your plan can cover, tell us the dates and we will talk through what is realistic.
Tell us what’s going on: sesi.com.au/referral · Call: 1800 017 374
This guide is general information based on National Disability Insurance Agency, Department of Health, Disability and Ageing and Victorian Government guidance current at September 2026. Prices are national price limits from the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27 and are maximums, not amounts you owe directly. Term dates are the Victorian government school dates, and individual schools set their own pupil-free days. This is not advice about your individual plan. For questions about your plan, contact the NDIA on 1800 800 110.
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