Enrolling a child: the forms you need
Enrolment is the biggest single piece of paperwork a service collects, and the one an authorised officer is most likely to ask for.
The enrolment record does most of the work. The rest of these either sit alongside it or update it later as things change.
All 9 forms below are free. Create an account to add any of them to your service.
1.The enrolment record
Regulation 160 requires an enrolment record for every child, covering their details, each parent, authorised nominees, court orders, language and cultural background — plus the health information in Regulation 162 and the authorisations in Regulation 161. Use the long day care version for 0–5, or the outside school hours version if you run before school, after school or vacation care.
Complete enrolment record for long day care, preschool and kindergarten, covering every detail Regulations 160, 161 and 162 require.
Enrolment record for before school care, after school care and vacation care, including session bookings and travel authorisations.
2.Which days they are coming
Separate from the enrolment record, because it changes. A written booking is what settles it when a parent says they booked Wednesday and your roll says Thursday.
Parent form to request permanent or casual bookings at the childcare service.
3.Emergency contacts and authorised nominees
Regulation 160(3)(b) requires contact details for anyone who may be notified in an emergency, collect the child, consent to medical treatment, or authorise an educator to take the child off the premises. These change more often than anything else on the record, so it helps to have a form families can send you rather than re-doing the whole enrolment.
Parent form to add an emergency contact and authorised person to their child's enrolment record.
4.Medical conditions
If a child has a medical condition, Regulation 90 requires the family to be given your medical conditions policy and to acknowledge it. Collect this at enrolment along with any action plans, rather than after the first incident.
Parent form to provide medical condition details, management plan, and medication requirements for their child.
5.Standing authorisations
The everyday consents that are easier to settle once at enrolment than to ask for on the day — sunscreen being the common one.
Parent authorisation for the childcare service to apply sunscreen to their child.
Also worth having
Not part of this job, but they come up. Add them separately if you need them.
Parent authorisation for a child to walk home from the childcare service unaccompanied.
Parent authorisation for a person under 18 to sign a child in and out of the childcare service.
Parent authorisation for regular transportation of a child by the childcare service.
Also called
- Childcare enrolment forms
- Enrolment paperwork
- Childcare registration forms
- New child paperwork
- Daycare enrolment pack
Common questions
Which enrolment record should I use?
The Child Enrolment Record for long day care, preschool and kindergarten (0–5), and the Outside School Hours Care Enrolment Record for before school care, after school care and vacation care. The OSHC one adds the school and year group, the session booking pattern, and the Regulation 99 authorisations for a child to walk home or travel independently.
How often does the enrolment record need updating?
Regulation 160 requires it to be current, not merely to exist. In practice that means asking families to confirm their details periodically — and always before a program where the emergency contacts matter, like vacation care.
Do I need a new enrolment record each year?
No, but the information in it has to stay accurate. Most services re-confirm details annually and update the record rather than starting a new one.
Written as general guidance for Australian education and care services. It is not legal advice, and it may not reflect the latest amendments — check the Education and Care Services National Regulations and your regulatory authority for the current position.
Other guides
Vacation care forms: excursions, transport and bus checks
What a school holiday program actually runs on — an authorisation for each excursion, transport consent, and the embarking and disembarking checks.
Daily records: what educators fill in as things happen
The records your staff complete during the day — incidents, illness, medication given, and observations of children’s learning.
Forms parents and guardians fill in
Every form you send out to families — enrolment, permissions, collection arrangements, medication authority and feedback.
Forms your educators fill in
The records staff complete — incidents and illness, medication given, observations, safety checks and transport.