NCCD moderation: how to run it, with a checklist and record template

What NCCD moderation checks

Moderation is not a file audit. It tests whether the school's decisions follow from the evidence it collected through the year. For each student in the sample, the team checks four things:

• Level: the level reported matches how often and how intensively the student was adjusted for, and it is the highest level provided for at least 10 weeks in the 12 months before Census Day. NCCD levels of adjustment, with examples sets out all four.
• Category: it is the area that is the main driver of the adjustments, not the diagnosis. Where a student has more than one disability, it is the one needing the greatest adjustment. See how to choose the NCCD category of disability.
• Inclusion: the student has a disability under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992, diagnosed or imputed, and the adjustments address its functional impact. Where it is imputed, the team has confirmed the adjustments are due to disability, not academic performance, learning difficulties or external factors. See what imputed disability means for the NCCD.
• Evidence: the record covers need, consultation, adjustments and monitoring well enough to justify all three decisions, with at least 10 weeks of adjustments. For Extensive, the adjustments are in place at all times, over consecutive weeks.

Who runs NCCD moderation

The principal nominates a team to drive the NCCD process and moderate the data, and the principal is responsible for the accuracy of what the school submits. In most schools the NCCD or learning support coordinator leads that team. Keep the group small and mixed, so no decision rests on one person's memory of a student:

• The NCCD or learning support coordinator, who runs the session and keeps the record.
• Classroom teachers who know the students in the sample, and ideally one who does not, to read the evidence cold.
• Learning support or inclusion staff who plan the adjustments.
• A school leader, for the cases that need a decision about inclusion.

Outside the school, education authorities are encouraged to facilitate moderation across schools, so ask your approved authority or sector what it offers. The NCCD coordinator role covers the rest of the coordinator's year.

How to run NCCD moderation, step by step

The official Quick Guide lists a Moderation resource for schools on the NCCD Portal, and your sector may publish its own. Whichever you follow, the steps below are a practical way to run a session with the evidence the school already holds. Schools are not required to create new evidence for the NCCD, so the team works from the records the school already holds. The only new document is the moderation record.

1. Set up: the principal's nominated team agrees the date, the sample and how decisions will be recorded, before anyone opens a file.
2. Gather the files: each student's records in the form they already exist, such as the learning plan, logged adjustments, consultation notes and review notes.
3. Summarise each file: one person sets out what was adjusted, how often and how intensively, over how many weeks, and what the evidence shows in each of the four areas. No decisions yet.
4. Decide separately: at least two people each note a level and a category before the discussion, so the team can see where judgements already agree.
5. Discuss the differences: test each one against the frequency, intensity and range of the adjustments, never against the diagnosis, the effort staff have put in, or the funding a level attracts.
6. Record the decision: the agreed level and category, the evidence they rest on, and any follow-up, in a record like the template below.
7. Follow up: close the actions by the dates agreed, and moderate again any student whose level changes.
8. Report to the principal: the moderation notes go with the data for approval. The Quick Guide's approval step includes details of any moderation processes.

If the team still cannot agree, go back to the evidence. The level the record clearly supports is the one to report, and the gap goes on the follow-up list.

Choose the files to moderate

You do not need to moderate every student in one sitting. Choose a sample that tests consistency, then add every case that is genuinely borderline. In a small school, it can be simplest to moderate every student receiving adjustments.

• Students across year levels and classes, so the same level means the same thing everywhere.
• Students at each level of adjustment, including QDTP.
• Students across the four categories of disability.
• Every student whose level changed this year, or was carried over from last year. Levels are reviewed every year, not assumed to have stayed the same.
• Students with an imputed disability, to check the grounds, the consultation and the 2026 confirmation are on the record.
• New enrolments whose 10 weeks partly rest on evidence from a previous school.
• Every student a teacher or coordinator has flagged as unsure.

The NCCD coordinator dashboard shows every student's readiness across the four pillars (Emerging, Developing, Strong or Audit-Ready), so a sample that covers thin records and complete ones is quicker to build. Audit-Ready is a Superadjust readiness label, not an NCCD outcome.

Test the borderline calls

Most of the time goes on students near the line between two levels. The Quick Guide suggests weighing the frequency, intensity and range of the adjustments: occasional, periodic or daily; part of the day or the whole day; some activities and learning areas or all of them; and what evidence there is.

The three lines that come up most:

• QDTP or Supplementary: is the support still part of routine differentiated teaching, or targeted support added on top of it, at specific times?
• Supplementary or Substantial: is the support for particular activities at specific times, or at most times on most days, with considerable adult assistance?
• Substantial or Extensive: is the intensive support in place at all times, over consecutive weeks, or at most times on most days?

Ask of each file: would someone outside the school, reading this record cold, reach the same level? If the evidence is lighter than the level, the level changes, not the evidence.

An NCCD moderation checklist

Run through this for an early round and again for the final pass before the data is approved. Each line is done when the right-hand column is true.

An NCCD moderation record template you can copy

A moderation decision that is not written down has to be made again next year. Copy these fields into a spreadsheet or document, one row per student. A sentence in each is enough. The example is an illustration, not a real student.

Keep the completed record with the school's NCCD records, where next year's team can find it, and give the principal a summary for approval: how many files were moderated, how many levels changed, and what is still open. Getting principal sign-off on NCCD data covers that meeting.

When to moderate

Moderate any time before the data is approved, early enough to act on what the team finds. Victorian government schools, for example, moderate in Term 2; that timing is set by Victoria for its own schools, so check what your sector or approved authority expects. One rhythm that leaves time to act:

Census Day is the first Friday in August. The next is expected to be Friday 6 August 2027, though the date is not yet officially published. For the final week, use the NCCD Census Day checklist.

What the 2026 Guidelines mean for moderation

Three of the points the NCCD Guidelines: Effective 2026 Onward clarified change the questions a moderation team asks. They are clarifications, not a new model.

• Extensive: are the adjustments in place at all times, over consecutive weeks?
• Imputed disability: has the team confirmed the adjustments are due to disability, not academic performance, learning difficulties or external factors?
• Consultation: where parents, guardians or carers were not consulted, is the reason recorded? A brief explanation is enough, and agreement is not required.

For everything the 2026 Guidelines clarified, see what changed in the 2026 NCCD Guidelines.

Keep decisions consistent across classes and years

Consistency is the point of moderation. Two habits help. Keep a small set of anonymised examples for each level of adjustment that staff agreed on, and use them to calibrate each new round. And watch for patterns: if one class reports far more Substantial students than another with a similar cohort, look at how each class records support before looking at the students.

If your school uses a multi-tiered system of support, MTSS and the NCCD covers how the tiers relate to the levels, and where the comparison breaks down in moderation.

How moderation differs from the Department's checks

Moderation is the school's own check on its decisions, made before the data is approved. Quality assurance also happens outside the school:

• Approved authorities: they quality-assure their schools' data, including by facilitating moderation across schools.
• Government schools: state and territory authorities run assurance for their own schools.
• Non-government schools: the Department of Education runs annual quality assurance, examining school-held records and data anomalies. Its post-enumeration check samples non-government schools and sights NCCD evidence in the form the school already holds it.

A school that has moderated its decisions and recorded the reasons is well placed for all of these. The NCCD audit checklist covers what to have ready for a review, and the NCCD Quick Guide on one page shows where moderation sits among the 8 official steps.

What to do next

Book the first round, choose the sample, and copy the record template before anyone opens a file. When the final pass is done, take the decisions to the principal with the one-page summary and the list of open actions.

How we checked this guide

The encouragement to moderate internally, the principal's nominated team, the approval step and the Moderation resource for schools come from the NCCD Quick Guide (2026 edition, Steps 1, 6 and 7, published by Education Services Australia for the Australian Government Department of Education) and the NCCD Guidelines: Effective 2026 Onward. The Quick Guide summarises the Guidelines and does not replace them. The Victorian Department of Education's NCCD policy describes school teams meeting to discuss and moderate their data confidentially, to make decisions that are consistent, reliable and defensible, and sets the Term 2 timing for Victorian government schools.

The steps, the checklist, the record template and the worked example are ours: a practical way to apply that guidance, not an official template. If the Guidelines change, we update this page and the date at the top.