In this paper, a new displacement based high-order shear deformation theory is introduced for the static response of functionally graded sandwich plate with new definition of porosity distribution taking into account composition and the scheme of the sandwich plate. Unlike any other theory, the number of unknown functions involved is only four, as against five in case of other shear deformation theories. The theory presented is variationally consistent, has strong similarity with classical plate theory in many aspects, does not require shear correction factor, and gives rise to transverse shear stress variation such that the transverse shear stresses vary parabolically across the thickness satisfying shear stress free surface conditions. Material properties of FGM layers are assumed to vary continuously across the plate thickness according to either power-law or sigmoid function in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents. The face layers are considered to be FG across each face thickness while the core is made of a ceramic homogeneous layer. Governing equations are derived from the principle of virtual displacements. The closed-form solution of a simply supported rectangular plate subjected to sinusoidal loading has been obtained by using the Navier method. Numerical results are presented to show the effect of the material distribution, the sandwich plate geometry and the porosity on the deflections and stresses of FG sandwich plates. The validity of the present theory is investigated by comparing some of the present results with other published results.