The
Education (Accreditation of Non-State Schools) Act 2017 (the Act) (section 11) and Education (Accreditation of Non-State Schools) Regulation 2017 (the Regulation) (Part 2) outline the accreditation criteria that schools must meet to begin and remain operating.
It is an offence to operate a school without accreditation or falsely claim to be accredited (sections 74 and 76 of the Act). Read more about
enforcement action.
Accreditation requirements
To begin, and continue, operating effectively, governing bodies and schools must comply with the following accreditation criteria:
- administration and governance
- financial viability
- educational program
- student welfare processes
- school resources
- improvement processes.
Governing bodies have flexibility in how they meet these accreditation criteria.
The Regulation also includes additional requirements to ensure non-state schools provide quality education and comply with the law. These include rules about:
Find out in the
compliance review program guidelines how to show that governing bodies and schools are meeting and maintaining accreditation requirements.
Temporary site compliance
Only special assistance schools can use a temporary site and only according to its approved accreditation attributes. For example, if the school is accredited to provide special assistance for Years 10–12 at its accredited sites, it can only offer Years 10–12 at the temporary site.
Special assistance schools can use a temporary site for up to 200 consecutive school days from the first day special assistance is provided there. During this time, the school must meet the temporary site criteria (sections 21–25 of the Regulation). These include:
- adequate school resources including staffing, land and buildings, and educational facilities and materials
- additional requirements for the school’s standard of service to include monitoring and attendance of students at the temporary site.
Governing bodies must properly notify us about their use of a temporary site. Non-compliance is grounds for cancellation of accreditation (section 66 of the Act).
Read more about notifications for
temporary special assistance sites and how we
monitor compliance.
Schools moving to a temporary location due to safety concerns
Temporary site compliance is not applicable for schools that are not accredited for special assistance. Read more about how other types of schools can make a
temporary move due to safety concerns after a natural disaster, emergency or unforeseen event.