School Registration Insights

School Registration Insights provides key updates to support schools in understanding and meeting their registration and compliance requirements. Each edition aims to highlight recent regulatory changes, compliance reminders, new resources, and upcoming dates and events to support effective assurance practices.

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February 2026 edition

The February 2026 edition contains the following information: 

School Registration Manuals update

NESA has updated the School Registration Manuals following Premier Chris Minns’ announcement that hate speech has no place in any NSW school.

The changes include:

  1. requiring Codes of Conduct for all staff and responsible persons to explicitly prohibit hate speech, and
  2. adding a hate speech prohibition to the fit and proper requirements for responsible persons.

This change took effect on Tuesday 3 February 2026.

All schools are required to update their documented policies and processes. Schools should write to their responsible persons and staff advising of changes to the codes of conduct.

NESA is reviewing and updating its resources to reflect the change. An updated responsible persons’ Fit and Proper Statutory Declaration template (PDF 229.82KB) is available. You might want to also check out the annotated template guide (PDF 236.46KB). 

For more information, please refer to the relevant Registration Manual and the Official Notice.

NSW Anti-Bullying Framework – Key points for schools

What will be required

From 2027, all NSW schools must have anti-bullying policies aligned with the NSW Anti-Bullying Framework and publish them on their website. Policies must outline how bullying is prevented, how students are supported promptly, and how all actions are recorded. Schools will also need a triage process so urgent cases are managed immediately.

What’s coming in 2026

NESA will release materials in Term 1, 2026 to support non-government schools to review and align their existing policies with the Framework. Further information clarifying how the requirement will be regulated will be available and feature in an upcoming edition of Insights. This will help schools prepare for the mandatory requirements coming into effect in 2027.

What schools can start doing now

Non-government schools can begin preparing by:

  • reviewing their current procedures against the Framework’s expectations,
  • strengthening their response and record keeping processes, and
  • helping staff understand the evidence-based approach behind the reforms. 

Shared resources and professional learning will be available across sectors to support this early preparation.

Are your school policies publicly available?

The Registration Manuals require non-government schools to make the following policies publicly available: 

  • Child Protection
  • Anti-Bullying
  • Discipline
  • Enrolment
  • Complaints.

NESA recently reviewed non-government school websites to check school compliance with this requirement. We found that 81% of schools had all the required policies available online. The remaining 19% did not make one or more policies publicly accessible. In most cases, the policies existed but were:

  • available only upon request,
  • published in handbooks or on a secure parent portal, and
  • provided as brief summaries rather than full policies.

Principals are responsible for ensuring their school complies with registration requirements. This includes verifying that policies are accessible online and updating web versions whenever policies are reviewed or revised. It may be timely to do a check of your school’s website.

Resources to support schools in meeting registration requirements and strengthening assurance processes are available on our Resources for schools page.

Random Inspection Program

The Random Inspection Program applies to all government and non-government schools in NSW. As more non-government schools undergo school assurance renewal of registrations without an inspection, NESA is conducting an increased number of short notice inspections to monitor ongoing compliance. 

These inspections:

  • are usually completed within a few hours,
  • focus on records held by schools,
  • do not require the preparation of new documents, and
  • allow electronic records to remain in digital form (no need to print).

An Official Notice was issued on 17 October 2025 - Requirements for schools selected randomly for a short notice inspection in 2026.

If a systemic non-government school is selected, the proprietor will be notified and may send a representative to attend the inspection.

If a government school is selected, the Director, Educational Leadership will be informed and invited to attend.

CRICOS Schools

Schools approved to provide education for overseas students (CRICOS) are returning to more normal activity following the COVID period. In many cases, new staff have taken responsibility for restarting programs and existing policies and processes have required revision.

As part of the CRICOS random inspection program, selected schools can now be assessed at short notice on aspects of their CRICOS policies and procedures.

Full details of this program are outlined in NESA’s Official Notice (17 October 2025) - Requirements for school providers (CRICOS) selected randomly for a short notice inspection in 2026. 

What we learnt from NESA inspections 2024-25

  • Schools with strong self-assurance practices found inspections to be a straightforward and affirming process. A culture of monitoring, review, and continuous improvement helps schools remain confident in compliance. Non-government schools uncertain of their processes or renewing registration in 2026 may benefit from using the self-assurance audit tool (DOCX 280.03KB) to identify strengths and areas for improvement.
  • Inspectors found strong evidence that schools are committed to child safety, including:
    • verified WWCC checks for staff in child-related work before employment and within renewal timeframes,
    • policies and procedures to identify and respond to students at risk of significant harm,
    • clear processes for recognising, preventing, reporting, and investigating reportable conduct, and
    • annual staff training on legal obligations and school policies regarding child protection and reportable conduct.
  • Areas for improvement included:
    • maintaining evidence that staff who missed scheduled training completed catch-up sessions, and
    • publishing clear publicly available information on how stakeholders can raise allegations of staff misconduct and how these are managed.
  • Schools maintain sound curriculum documentation for new syllabuses. Schools drew on a wide range of support materials and developed their own approaches to teaching and learning. Inspectors noted flexibility in documentation, provided key inclusions were met. The NESA Curriculum Fact Sheet (PDF 337.51KB) clarifies the minimum requirements.
  • Schools produce sound assessment advice aligned with ACE requirements. Preliminary and HSC assessment information generally provided clear expectations and processes. However, many schools lacked procedures for managing invalid or unreliable tasks. Establishing a clear strategy avoids disputes when tasks fail to meet their purpose.
  • Schools use flexibility in assessment schedules to meet student needs. Most schools adhered to principles of minimising student workload while meeting syllabus requirements. In some cases, adjustments were needed to ensure mandatory course-specific components and component weightings were applied correctly.
  • Non-government school inspections highlighted the need for strengthened governance processes for Responsible Persons. Areas requiring improvement included:

New resources

A range of resources for schools are available on our Resources for Schools page. Recent updates include:

NESA will continue to develop and refine resources to support schools in meeting their compliance requirements.

Upcoming dates

31 March 2026 is the closing date for applications for: 

  • renewal of registration
  • renewal of approval as a provider for Overseas Students (CRICOS)
  • new years of schooling by an existing school
  • initial registration of a new school
  • initial approval as a provider for Overseas Students (CRICOS)

30 June 2026

  • 2025 Annual School Reports to be uploaded on RANGS for all non-government schools.

Previous editions

Past editions will be available here as new editions are published.

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