The short version
Evidence needs to show three things: that a student received adjustments for at least 10 weeks in the 12 months before census day, that those adjustments addressed the functional impact of a disability, and, since the current guidelines, a documented reason if a parent or carer was not consulted beforehand. Everything below unpacks each of those.
The 10-week, 12-month window
For QDTP, Supplementary and Substantial, the 10 weeks do not need to be consecutive. They can be spread across the year, in one block or several, and can span more than one school if a student moves. School-based activities during holidays, a camp or an excursion, can count toward the total. Holiday care or programs with no educational component cannot.
Extensive is different. Under the current guidelines, Extensive requires 10 consecutive weeks with support in place at all times, with only limited exceptions. Where a term runs shorter than 10 weeks, the weeks can carry over into the next term as long as they stay consecutive across the break.
What actually counts as evidence
The NCCD relies on the professional judgement of teachers and school teams, working from evidence of everyday practice, not a formal diagnosis in every case. A disability can be diagnosed or imputed, meaning a school team can reasonably conclude a student meets the definition based on the evidence in front of them, even without a clinical report. What evidence needs to demonstrate is what was actually delivered: the adjustment, how often, and why it was needed.
The filter worth applying to anything uncertain
Does this adjustment respond to the functional impact of a disability? If the honest answer is that it is really about a skills gap, a behaviour pattern on its own, attendance, or something happening at home, it likely does not belong in the NCCD, however genuinely useful the support might be.
The parent consultation requirement
Where possible, schools should consult with a parent or carer before adjustments begin. If that consultation did not happen first, the current guidelines require the school to document the reason. This is a newer, specific expectation worth building into whatever process a school already uses to record adjustments, since it is exactly the kind of detail that is easy to forget in the moment and hard to reconstruct later.
Where evidence usually falls apart
Almost never from a lack of genuine effort. It falls apart because the adjustments happened in the middle of a busy term, and by the time evidence is due, weeks of small, real decisions have to be reconstructed from memory. A read-aloud here, simplified instructions there, extra time on one particular week, none of it was wrong, but none of it was written down either.
Where BrainBase fits
This is the specific problem BrainBase's evidence log is built around. Adjustments delivered inside the app are logged automatically, categorised, and timestamped, as they happen rather than reconstructed afterward. Manual entries cover anything delivered outside the app. It is supporting documentation, meant to sit alongside a school's own evidence and professional judgement, not to replace either.