Current School Registration Manual
In September 2023, NESA published a revised Registration Manual which can be found here on NESA’s section of the NSW Government website.
The current Registration Manual took effect 1 January 2024.
NESA’s regulation of Independent schools
NESA’s regulatory processes increasingly rely on schools’ internal assurance processes.
NESA has two key approaches for the regulation of Independent schools:
- Renewal of registration and accreditation, which happens cyclically, generally every 5 years. CRICOS school providers renew their approval at the same time.
- Short notice inspections, which happen annually with different schools selected at random each year.
NESA has been increasing the number of cyclical renewals of registration that rely on a Principal’s certification of compliance with requirements with no NESA inspection visit.
The number of schools selected, at random, for a school registration short notice inspection has also increased.
In 2025, NESA will expand the short notice inspection program to include CRICOS school providers.
Process for renewal of registration in 2025
NESA considers a school’s context when deciding what the renewal of registration process will be, including:
- whether the school operates boarding facilities or distance education
- if NESA makes a recommendation to other agencies about the school, e.g. for CRICOS providers, Special Schools and Special Assistance Schools
- if the school is in their first year of operation or in a growth phase
- when the last inspection of the school was conducted
- any indicators that arise from NESA’s risk assessment process.
The renewal of registration process will likely be different from school to school.
PROCESS
For a school renewing registration in 2025, a NESA Inspector will contact the school in Term 4 2024. They will confirm the school’s context and inform the Principal of the type of renewal process that NESA will implement.
Generally, schools will renew registration by either:
1. Principal certification only (no documentation uploaded).
The Principal’s certification must be completed and the application form submitted in RANGS Online by 31 March 2025. No other documents will be needed.
The school will not receive an inspection visit as part of renewing registration.
The school will be in the pool for a short notice inspection in its renewal year.
OR
2. Principal certification and an inspection visit (documentation uploaded).
The Inspector will inform the Principal what documents need to be uploaded and submitted in the RANGS Online application form by 31 March 2025.
Closer to the scheduled visit, the Inspector will tell the Principal what documents will be required on the day.
These schools will be removed from the pool for a short notice inspection for 2 years.
At any point during the renewal of registration application, the scope of the process may change. This may occur because of a change in the context of the school or information that arises and is relevant to NESA’s risk assessment.
AISNSW has a team of Regulation consultants available to support member schools through this process.
Each year and across all sectors NESA randomly selects schools and visits them for an inspection at short notice at a minimum of 10 calendar days notice.
NESA has expanded its short notice inspection program. In 2025, there are 2 separate programs:
- School Registration Random Program.
- CRICOS Random Program.
As NESA increases the number of schools that renew their registration with no inspection visit, we expect the number of Independent schools chosen for a short notice inspection will also increase.
WHAT IS THE FOCUS OF A SHORT NOTICE INSPECTION?
In Term 4 each year, NESA publishes the focus areas for the following year's short notice inspection programs. NESA selects a subset of school registration or CRICOS requirements as the focus for these inspections.
A school could review the published focus areas each year as part of their internal compliance processes.
HOW ARE SCHOOLS SELECTED FOR SHORT NOTICE INSPECTIONS?
NESA randomly selects schools for short notice inspections each year from a list of all schools across all sectors, excluding any schools already scheduled to have an inspection visit that year or schools who had an inspection visit in the previous two years.
As all CRICOS school providers will have an inspection visit in the year they renew registration, they will be excluded from a short notice inspection for 2 years following their renewal of CRICOS registration.
