HSC exam provisions: information for parents and caregivers

What are HSC exam provisions?

HSC exam provisions are practical changes that can support your child to access, read or respond to the HSC exams. They are usually for students with a medical condition or disability that affects how they function in the exam room. 

Examples are:

• rest breaks
• small group supervision
• a large-print exam paper.

Find out more on the HSC exam provisions page. 

What provisions can my child apply for?

You can ask for exam provisions that are relevant to your child’s needs. We approve provisions based on a student’s exam needs rather than their condition or disability. For example:

• We might approve a large-print exam paper for one student with vision impairment, and approve rest breaks (for eye strain) for another student with vision impairment.
• We might approve varied seating within the exam hall for one student with ADHD, and approve small group supervision or rest breaks for another student with ADHD.

Find out what provisions are available on the Types of exam provisions page.

How does the application process work?

The exam provisions have to work for your child. So the school will talk to you and your child about them. The school will do the application for you. They will also explain the process, fill in forms, help collect supporting information, then send everything to us (NESA) to review.

Find out more about the process on the Applications page. 

What happens if my child’s application is not approved?

Sometimes we don’t approve a request for an exam provision. This might be because:

• the application didn’t have all the right supporting information
• approving that provision for your child wouldn’t be fair for all HSC students
• the request isn’t possible or practical.

If you think we’ve made the wrong decision, you can ask the school to appeal for you. You’ll normally need to give us new supporting information that is relevant to the requested exam provisions as part of that appeal.

Find out more about the principles we follow and the appeals process on the Appeals page. 

What happens in the exam?

There are specific rules for each exam provision. For example, if we have approved rest breaks for your child, some of the rules are about:

• how much time they can take as a rest break over the whole exam
• how long or short rest breaks are
• what they can and can’t do during a rest break.

You can look up the rules for some of the most common exam provisions in the Exam provisions library. Or ask your school about the rules for the exam provisions your child is approved for.