Authorised Person Visit NSW: What to Expect and How to Prepare

The notification arrives and a knot forms in your stomach. An Authorised Person will be conducting your home education assessment visit. You have been home educating for months, you know your child is learning, but something about "assessment visit" triggers every anxiety about doing this wrong.

That knot is normal. What usually is not true is the story your brain is telling you about what the visit involves.

What Is an Authorised Person?

Under Section 70 of the Education Act 1990, the Department of Education appoints Authorised Persons (APs) to assess home education programmes. APs are experienced educational professionals — typically retired school principals or senior teachers contracted by the DoE's Home Schooling Directorate (HSD). They are not compliance officers or bureaucrats with clipboards.

Since May 2025, the HSD within the NSW Department of Education manages the AP network (this function previously sat with NESA). The AP assigned to your registration is not your adversary. Their job is to evaluate your application against the Act's requirements and make a registration recommendation to the DoE.

The Four Things an AP Assesses

During a visit — which typically runs 1.5 to 2 hours, and can occur in the home, at an alternative agreed venue, or online via video conference — the AP focuses on four criteria:

1. Sighting the child. The AP must physically observe your child. This is brief and informal — the AP does not conduct academic testing or subject the child to direct examination. For highly anxious or neurodivergent children, the sighting can be kept low-key: the child might briefly enter the room, show a favourite project, and leave.

2. Assessing parent capacity. The AP evaluates your ability to plan, deliver, and supervise the educational programme. No formal teaching qualifications are required. What matters is that you demonstrate thoughtfulness about your child's education and familiarity with the programme you have outlined.

3. Evaluating the physical learning space. The AP wants to see that there is a suitable space with adequate lighting, ventilation, and resources — desks, books, learning materials, technology. Using a standard dining table is perfectly acceptable. You do not need a dedicated classroom, colour-coded binder system, or anything that replicates a school. The AP is looking for a genuine learning environment, not a showroom.

4. Reviewing curriculum documentation. The AP checks that your educational plan explicitly aligns with NESA syllabuses and that you have established a systematic method for tracking progress. For initial visits, this means reviewing your proposed plan. For renewal visits, it means comparing what you said you would do with what you actually did.

Initial Visit vs. Renewal Visit

The documentation expected differs significantly depending on where you are in the registration cycle.

Initial registration visit: The focus is prospective. You present your proposed educational plan, lists of scheduled resources, and blank templates or outlines showing how you plan to record progress and assess achievement. The AP is evaluating your readiness and capacity. You do not need a portfolio of completed work — you are being assessed on your plan, not your track record.

Renewal registration visit (biennial): The focus is both retrospective and prospective. You must produce dated, representative work samples across all required Key Learning Areas from the previous registration period, alongside reading logs, excursion records, and completed progress reports. This portfolio must show progress over time. You also present your new educational plan for the upcoming period.

Experienced families often find renewal visits easier than the initial one because they have evidence to show rather than just plans to describe.

What to Prepare — Practically

Here is a working checklist for the week before your visit:

Your educational plan. Have the plan you submitted through the HSO portal — printed or on a device — and know which resources cover each KLA. If you have deviated from the original plan, write a brief note explaining what changed and why.

Work samples and evidence (renewal visits). Organise a portfolio — physical or digital — with dated samples from the registration period. Aim for evidence across all required primary KLAs or the applicable secondary core, mandatory, and elective areas, not just the ones your child finds easiest. A coherent collection of dated, representative pieces spanning the period is more useful than a box of everything. Include photos of projects, field trips, group learning, and co-op activities.

Your resource area. Gather the books, workbooks, art materials, science kits, and digital subscriptions that represent your programme. They do not need to be spotless. They need to be present and accessible. If you primarily use digital resources, have your curriculum platform ready to show on a device.

A portfolio binder structure that works:

• Section 1: Educational philosophy statement (1-2 pages)
• Section 2: Weekly schedule or daily rhythm outline
• Section 3: KLA sub-sections with coded syllabus outcomes, resource lists, and selected work samples (dated and annotated, for renewals)
• Section 4: Record-keeping log templates (reading logs, exercise journals)

The Conversation With Your Child

This is what parents are most anxious about. What if my child freezes? What if they cannot explain anything they have learned?

The sighting is brief and informal. It is not an academic test or direct examination, so prepare your child for a short, low-pressure interaction rather than a performance.

You can prepare your child simply: tell them someone is coming to ask about what they are learning, similar to when they talk about school with relatives. Ask them what they would want to show. Let them pick one or two things they are proud of and have those ready.

Do not script them. Do not run mock interrogations. Do not make the visit feel high-stakes. Children absorb parental anxiety and perform worse if they sense this is a pass/fail situation.

For neurodivergent children who experience selective mutism, social anxiety, or acute distress around unfamiliar adults, the AP is trained to recognise that a highly structured school-like interaction is counterproductive. Options include conducting a brief, low-stress visual confirmation, scheduling the child sighting portion in a comfortable space, or — in documented cases — securing a medical exemption from the sighting requirement.

Setting Boundaries During the Visit

This is the piece most free guides skip. The AP visit is a conversation about your educational programme, not an open inspection of your home. Practical boundaries to know:

• The AP reviews your educational plan and evidence. They do not need access to your child's bedroom or private areas of the home.
• You can choose which room the visit takes place in. The learning space you show is wherever your child genuinely learns.
• If the AP asks to see something outside the scope of the educational assessment, you can politely redirect: "We've set up everything for today's review in this room."
• You can have a support person present — another parent, a friend, an HEA advocate.

The visit should feel like a professional conversation between adults who share an interest in a child's education. If it does not feel that way, the Home Education Association (HEA) provides legal advocacy support.

What Happens If the AP Has Concerns

Most AP visits result in a positive recommendation. But if the AP identifies issues:

Show-Cause Notice. Rather than an immediate refusal, the DoE is bound by procedural fairness to issue a Show-Cause Notice. This formal correspondence outlines the specific compliance deficits and provides you with 14 to 28 days to submit amended documentation or address the issues.

Internal Review. If the DoE ultimately refuses or cancels registration, you have the right to request an internal review within 28 days of receiving the decision.

NCAT Appeal. If the internal review upholds the adverse decision, you can lodge a formal appeal with the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) under its Administrative and Equal Opportunity Division. NCAT can affirm, vary, or completely overturn the DoE's decision.

The show-cause process is not the outcome of an imperfect visit. It is reserved for situations where fundamental problems exist. For families who have submitted a real plan, implemented it in good faith, and kept some records, the AP visit is a professional conversation.

After the Visit

The AP submits their assessment and registration recommendation to the DoE Home Schooling Directorate. You will receive a written outcome — your Certificate of Home Schooling Registration confirming the registration period, or feedback with conditions. If conditions are attached, respond within the specified timeframe.

Make a note of when your next review is due (registration lasts up to two years under Section 73) and keep your documentation habit going. A portfolio maintained as you go is far easier than one reconstructed the week before a renewal visit.

The Short Version

The AP visit is an educational assessment conducted by a professional who has seen many home education programmes. They are not inspecting your house or testing your child. They are looking for evidence that your plan is real, that your child is learning, and that you are thoughtful about it.

Prepare your plan, organise your evidence, tidy your resource area, and tell your child that someone is coming to hear about what they have been learning. The visit itself, for almost every family who has done the work, is less stressful than the anticipation of it.

The NSW Legal Withdrawal Blueprint includes a complete AP visit preparation guide, including boundary-setting scripts and a portfolio organisation framework designed specifically for the four assessment criteria.

See more New South Wales guides →