Data Collections Compliance Certificate

The Compliance Certification process requires Approved Authorities to answer a series of questions about policy requirements relating to section 77 of the Act and sections 42, 43, 56(f) and 59 of the Regulation:

• implement the Australian Curriculum
• participate in the National Assessment Program (NAPLAN and sample based national and international assessments)
• provide information about a school’s students – for example, any other information specified in the Data Standards Manual: Student Background Characteristics
• provide understandable student A to E reports to the parents or carers of each child.

From the 2021 Compliance Certificate (for the 2020 school year), the Department of Education (the department) has adopted a risk-based approach to the Compliance Certification process, consistent with the department’s Schools Funding Assurance Framework, and a 2021 Australian National Audit Office review.

What does the risk-based approach mean for Approved Authorities?

The risk-based approach means that a sample of Approved Authorities will be selected to complete the Compliance Certificate each year.

If your Approved Authority has been selected for the 2023 Compliance Certificate process, you will receive notification through your SchoolsHUB registered email address in early August 2023.

The Compliance Certificate collection opens on SchoolsHUB at 9:00 am AEST on Monday 14 August 2023.

Approved Authorities must submit the Compliance Certificate no later than 5:00 pm AEST on Friday 29 September 2023.

The 2023 Compliance Certificate relates to activity in the 2022 school year only.

Approved Authorities must answer the 4 following questions for the 2022 school year:

1. For the previous school year, did your schools implement the Australian Curriculum (teach, assess and report on student achievement using the content and standards in the curriculum) or another curriculum recognised as comparable by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), and included in ACARA’s Recognition Register?
2. For the previous school year, did your schools collect and report information on the gender of the student, Indigenous status of the student, socioeconomic background (parental education and occupation) and language background of all students?
3. For the previous school year, did your schools provide parents and carers of students in years 1 to 10 with reports on student achievement for each subject using A to E or an equivalent scale?
4. For the previous school year, did your schools participate in the National Assessment Program?

The department will review the information provided on the Compliance Certificate and may contact Approved Authorities for further information or clarification.

The Compliance Certification Verification Exercise confirms that the information provided through the Compliance Certification process is accurate, complete, and reliable.

Each year a sample of Approved Authorities are selected to provide documentation to support the declarations made in their Compliance Certificate. If your Approved Authority is selected to participate in the Compliance Certificate Verification Exercise, you will receive email notification in early October 2023.

In addition, if there are ‘no’ responses to any of the questions on the Compliance Certificate, the department may request an explanation and further information from the Approved Authority.

Note: The department may also contact any Approved Authority as part of the Compliance Certification Verification Exercise process to request information about their compliance with ongoing policy requirements set out in section 77 of the Act, and related sections of the Regulation.

All materials received from the Approved Authority will be reviewed by the department to assess whether further information and/or investigation is required.