Yes. The Compliance Certificate collection is an assurance activity which confirms that Approved Authorities are applying Australian Education policies. Approved Authorities are required to answer questions to confirm that a school has met its obligations under the Australian Education Act 2013 (Cth) (the Act) and the Australian Education Regulation 2013 (Cth) (the Regulation).

To receive Australian Government funding, government and non-government Approved Authorities must comply with:

• Section 77 of the Act (‘Ongoing policy requirements for approved authorities’); and
• The specific requirements in Sections 42, 43, 56 and 59 of the Regulation.

Requirements under the Act include, but are not limited to, meeting the Regulation requirements listed below and cooperating with the States and Territories in which the schools are located in implementing relevant national policy initiatives and agreements.

Under the Regulation requirements, an Approved Authority for a school must:

• Apply the Australian Curriculum;
• Participate in the national assessment program (NAPLAN and sample based national and international assessments);
• Provide information – for example, for the school’s census, national reporting, and My School; and
• Provide understandable student A to E reports to the parents/carers of each child.

Approved Authorities are required to complete the Compliance Certificate collection on SchoolsHub.

Approved Authorities are required to certify that they have met all requirements. As an example, in 2022, Approved Authorities were required to answer the following four questions relating to the 2021 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 Recognised 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 year, did your schools participate in the National Assessment Program?

These questions may differ each year.

Independent schools receive funding from the Australian Government under the Australian Education Act 2013 (Cth) subject to the conditions which are set out in the Act.

The completion of the Compliance Certificate is a condition under the Act.

SchoolsHUB Data Collections – Compliance Certificate