BOS 22/13

Who needs to read this notice:
Principals and proprietors of non-government schools
Representatives of systems of non-government schools

The Minister for Education has approved amendments to the Registered and Accredited Individual Non-government Schools (NSW) Manual and the Registration Systems and Member Non-government Schools (NSW) Manual (‘the Manuals’).

Pursuant to the Board’s rule-making powers under section 131 of the Education Act 1990 (‘the Act’), the Manuals constitute the rules set out by the Board with respect to registration and accreditation.

The most significant amendments to the Manuals are described below:

1. replacing the Education Regulation 2007 with the Education Regulation 2012 (section 2.4.8 of the individual manual/section 2.5.10 of the system manual)
2. adding a reference to the Child Protection (Working with Children) Act 2012 (section 3.6.1/section 5.6.1) – commencement date to be announced
3. clarifying information about the provisions of the Act for registration for Years 11 and 12 (section 3.3.1.3/section 5.3.1.3)
4. adding further information about RoSA (section 5.1/section 7.1)
5. adding information about the provisions of the Act for extension of registration (new section 2.4.6/new section 2.5.7)
6. adding policies and procedures required for student welfare with specific reference to responding to student welfare issues arising from unsatisfactory attendance and/or unexplained absences (section 3.6.2/section 5.6.2)
7. changing ‘A registered non-government school must have policies and procedures in place to…’ to ‘A registered non-government school must have in place and implement policies and procedures to…’ (various sections)
8. adding website address references for legislation other than the Act and removing summaries of other legislation (sections 3.6.1 and 11/sections 5.6.1 and 13).

These amendments take effect with the publication of this Official Notice.

The amended manuals are available to download from the Registration and Accreditation of Non-government Schools (RANGS) website. The RANGS website is accessed from the Board’s website.

Please note that the web versions of the manuals are the most up-to-date manuals at any time.

Tracked changes of the amended sections of the manuals are available in the ‘Reference Documents section’ of the RANGS website.

The following support materials are also available:

• Proformas for Document Audits for Individual Schools
• Proformas for Document Audits for System Member Schools.

For further information:
Kim Owens
Senior Registration Officer
(02) 9367 8134
kim.owens@bos.nsw.edu.au