The junction
There is no national rule for getting into a school.
Eight education departments each run their own gate, and two of them give opposite answers to the same question. Pick where you work and this walks you through that jurisdiction's route, step by step, in the department's own words. Two territories have not posted signs at all, and they are on the board too.
The board — eight destinations
- VIC Victoria Signed · policy updated 8 July 2025
- QLD Queensland Signed · procedure effective 3 Jun 2022
- NSW New South Wales Signed in part · Scheme page 10 Aug 2026
- WA Western Australia Signed · reviewed 5 March 2026
- SA South Australia Signed · no dates published
- TAS Tasmania Signed · policy v1.0, 12 May 2023
- ACT Australian Capital Territory No signs posted
- NT Northern Territory No signs posted
“Signed” means that department publishes a procedure we fetched and read. “No signs posted” means we went looking and found none, and we would rather tell you that than guess from the state next door.
Who may ask, what you insure, what you sign, how long they have. Eight jurisdictions, three pages, and the blanks left blank.
The one convergence
They agree on exactly one thing.
Queensland, Tasmania and South Australia each say it independently, and Western Australia says it in the negative. You have no automatic right to be on school grounds.
NDIS providers do not have an automatic right to access schools to deliver NDIS supports.
S6 · Tasmania, policy v1.0, 12 May 2023
NDIS providers do not have an automatic right to access schools to deliver NDIS funded supports.
S8 · Queensland, provider fact sheet
That is where the agreement stops. Who may ask, what you insure, what you sign, and how long the principal has to answer diverge from the next step onward. This site is those divergences, one fork at a time.
The first fork
The path splits on the very first question.
Before insurance, before clearances, before anything: in some jurisdictions you are not allowed to make the call. In one, you are.
Queensland — you may not ask
NDIS providers cannot make requests for access directly to the school.
S8 · Queensland, provider fact sheet
Western Australia — you may ask
Providers can only make a direct request if they have the consent of the parent or carer.
S10 · Western Australia, last reviewed 5 March 2026
Western Australia is the only jurisdiction we found that lets you approach the school yourself. Queensland forbids exactly that. Take the WA branch in Queensland and you have broken the process on step one, not at the end.
The money fork
Victoria is the outlier in both directions at once.
Victoria
professional indemnity insurance (principals must check that the certificate is current, with a reputable insurer, covers the professional services being provided, and is for no less than $5 million per any one event and in the aggregate)
S3 · Victoria, guidance step 1, updated 30 January 2024
public liability insurance (principals must check that the certificate is current and is for a minimum sum per occurrence of $10 million)
S3 · Victoria, guidance step 1, updated 30 January 2024
Queensland
professional indemnity insurance for not less than $2 million per claim - public liability insurance for not less than $20 million per claim.
S8 · Queensland, provider fact sheet
So Victoria wants five times Queensland's professional indemnity and half its public liability. A policy sized for a Queensland school is under-insured on one axis and over-insured on the other the moment you cross into Victoria. There is no national minimum to size against, because there is no national rule. [S3, S8]
Where this route does not go
Every source on this site governs government schools. Catholic and independent systems set their own policies, and we did not read them. Nothing here should be assumed to apply to a diocesan or independent school. Ask that system directly.
If you work across a border
If you work across a border, the fork between two states is the thing that costs you a term. The one-pager puts all eight gates on a single sheet you can keep beside the phone. Send me every state's gate on one sheet.
The one-pager
Every state's gate on one sheet
The four questions that actually differ, the fork where Queensland and Western Australia contradict each other, and the two jurisdictions nobody has published. Printed to keep beside the phone.
- 01 Who may make the request, per jurisdiction, and the two states that disagree
- 02 Professional indemnity and public liability minimums, with the blanks left blank
- 03 The instrument each department requires, and who signs it
…and 8 more, including the two published decision clocks and the jurisdictions we could not establish.
Get the one-pager