The School Gate

Step 2 of 5 · The folder

What the office asks you to bring

Every jurisdiction that publishes requirements asks for a version of the same folder: identity, clearance, insurance, qualification, training. The contents are not the same, and neither are the instruments. Take your branch.

Fork one

The clearance is a state instrument, not a national check

Victoria

proof of a valid Working with Children Check

S3 · guidance step 1, updated 30 January 2024

Queensland

Working with Children (Blue Card) clearance details - photo identification, such as a valid Driver Licence or Proof of age card.

S8 · provider fact sheet

Queensland wants both, certified, for every named staff member. [S8]

Tasmania

evidence of current Worker Screening Check or Registration to Work with Vulnerable People check

S6 · policy v1.0, 12 May 2023

Western Australia

Schools will require evidence providers have a current Working with Children Check; a Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check or a NDIS Worker Screening Check

S10 · last reviewed 5 March 2026

Note the “or”. WA accepts any of the three. Nowhere else we read offers that choice. [S10]

South Australia

a current Teachers Registration certificate, OR - a DHS Working with Children Check Unique Identifier and a current Responding to Risks of Harm, Abuse and Neglect – Education and Care Masterclass Course certificate (RRHAN – EC), OR - a DHS Working with Children Check Unique Identifier, a current Responding to Risks of Harm, Abuse and Neglect – Education and Care Fundamental Course certificate (RRHAN – EC) and a Safe Environments Training certificate

S12 · information for providers

A three-way alternative, plus a child safe environments compliance statement. The heaviest paperwork set of anything we read. [S11, S12]

New South Wales, inside the Scheme

All provider staff delivering services in schools must have a valid WWCC and be cleared by the department's screening database.

S13 · last modified 10 August 2026

Scheme documents go in at least 7 days before you start. [S13]

Fork two

Training before session one

Queensland

the department's Mandatory All-Staff Training (MAST) program: key messages guide for contractors, volunteers and visitors within the last 12 months (a MAST declaration form must be provided for each NDIS provider staff member)

S8 · provider fact sheet

Tasmania

evidence of being an NDIS provider (either registered or unregistered)

S6 · policy v1.0, 12 May 2023

Tasmania also asks for the NDIS Commission's worker orientation module, first aid, CPR and anaphylaxis certificates, school induction and the department's mandatory reporting training. [S6]

South Australia

You do an induction to the school or preschool.

S12 · information for providers

New South Wales Scheme

Mandatory child protection training

S13 · last modified 10 August 2026

Fork three

Two things you are probably not required to do

Both of these get providers to spend money they did not have to. We checked them in the direction the source states, not the direction the rumour runs.

The NSW Scheme is optional. The department answers this itself.

No, schools can engage allied health providers of their choice. However, the Scheme simplifies the process for both schools and providers by handling compliance checks centrally.

S13 · New South Wales, last modified 10 August 2026

If you have been treating Scheme membership as the gate into NSW public schools, it is not one.

NDIS registration is not universally required either.

However self-managing participants can choose to employ unregistered providers who are not required to get an NDIS Worker Screening clearance. Schools should consider the increased risks associated with unregistered providers

S3 · Victoria, guidance step 1, updated 30 January 2024

Tasmania asks you to disclose the status rather than hold one: either registered or unregistered. [S6] Status disclosed, not required.

The speech-specific branch

Speech pathology is not an AHPRA-registered profession, and the departments handle that explicitly rather than leaving you to argue it at the front desk.

full membership of Speech Pathology Australia

S12 · South Australia, information for providers

evidence of qualifications and professional registration for all NDIS provider staff

S6 · Tasmania, policy v1.0, 12 May 2023

South Australia wants full SPA membership, not associate. NSW's Scheme list names Speech Pathology Australia membership alongside AHPRA registration for the professions that have it. [S12, S13]

The branch nobody plans for: where the session may physically happen

Queensland

The school, to meet its duty of care obligations, must be able to maintain a line of sight to the student while the NDIS support is being provided.

S8 · provider fact sheet

Tasmania

this does mean the service must be provided in a classroom or in a space that can be observed, for example through a window in a doorway or in an active area of the school.

S6 · policy v1.0, 12 May 2023

South Australia

maintaining a 'line of sight' for children or young people with disability at all times

S12 · information for providers

For a speech practice this is a service-design fact, not a compliance footnote. A therapy plan that assumes a quiet closed room may not be deliverable on school grounds at all. Tasmania carves out registered psychologists and accredited social workers from the observation requirement, and does not carve out speech pathologists. [S6] Queensland will consider a private room on a written request setting out why the confidentiality is needed. [S8] Victoria poses it as one of the principal's decision questions rather than a flat rule. [S4]

The last item in the folder is not paperwork

NDIS providers are responsible for resourcing their own services such as rooms and equipment. It is not the responsibility of schools to supply resources for NDIS providers to run their business

S6 · Tasmania, policy v1.0, 12 May 2023

The NDIS provider will be required to bring their own equipment and materials to deliver the support and be responsible for its maintenance and quality assurance.

S8 · Queensland, provider fact sheet

Bring the kit. Both departments say so in writing, and neither treats it as negotiable at the door.

The folder differs at every gate

The folder differs at every gate, and the sheet has the per-state checklist on one page. Send me every state's gate on one sheet.

Next: who actually makes the decision

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.

  1. 01 Who may make the request, per jurisdiction, and the two states that disagree
  2. 02 Professional indemnity and public liability minimums, with the blanks left blank
  3. 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