DepEd Basic Education Enrollment Policy SY 2018-2019

Legal basis, policy purpose, and rationale

The enrollment process is aligned with constitutional mandates of DepEd to ensure accessible and quality education delivery.
The policy is issued to align DepEd enrollment processes with reforms brought by Republic Act No. 10157 (Kindergarten Act) and Republic Act No. 10533 (Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013).
The enrollment of learners, including collection and management of enrollment data, is identified as integral in planning, resource allocation, policy formulation, and development of interventions.
DepEd consolidates various enrollment-related policies to institutionalize an efficient enrollment process for basic education.
The policy establishes learners’ rights to enroll in public schools by presenting the minimum documentary requirements.
The policy establishes learners’ rights to enroll in private schools and SUCs/LUCs offering basic education by submitting minimum documentary requirements and satisfying other admission conditions required by the educational institution, subject to existing laws and regulations.

Core policy rules on acceptance and process

All learners who elect to enroll in public schools nationwide must be accepted upon submission of the minimum documentary requirements articulated in the policy.
Learners who wish to enroll in private schools and SUCs/LUCs offering basic education must submit the minimum documentary requirements stipulated in the policy and satisfy other admission conditions the institution may require, subject to existing laws and regulations.
The policy establishes a standard process of enrollment in public and private schools, SUCs/LUCs, and Alternative Learning System (ALS) learning centers nationwide.
Enrollment rules are operationalized through procedures for early registration, actual enrollment, LIS encoding, and reiterated policies on the collection of fees.

Scope and coverage of enrollment activities

The policy guides DepEd offices and personnel involved in enrollment in public and private schools, SUCs/LUCs, and ALS learning centers.
The policy provides guidance to parents and learners on the enrollment process and the attendant requirements.
The policy covers:
- early registration
- actual enrollment
- Learner Information System (LIS) encoding
- reiteration of policies on collection of fees
- other enrollment-linked processes implemented through the LIS.
Early registration applies to incoming Kindergarten, Grades 1, 7, and 11 learners.
Subsequent sections of the policy regulate enrollment outcomes including pre-registered, temporarily enrolled, officially enrolled, late enrollment, and learners moving in/out.

Definitions controlling enrollment statuses

Early registration is the pre-registration of incoming Kindergarten, Grades 1, 7, and 11 learners conducted prior to the opening of classes.
Pre-registered learners have undergone early registration but are not considered officially enrolled.
Enrollment is the process of registering learners into the LIS upon submission of required supporting documents and the first date of attendance.
A Learner is an individual enrolled in an educational institution offering basic education.
Moved in refers to learners coming from other schools who enrolled in the school in the middle of the school year.
Moved out refers to learners previously enrolled in the school who enrolled in other schools in the middle of the school year.
Temporarily enrolled learners are not officially enrolled due to deficiencies in submission of documentary requirements.
Transferred in refers to learners aggregated by male and female who entered from one school to another (either government or private) from the 1st Friday of school calendar days to March 31.
Transferred out refers to learners who left school to enter another school as evidenced by a request for permanent record (Form 137) from the 1st Friday of school calendar days to March 31.
Out of School Children (OSC) are persons aged 6 to 14 years who are not attending school.
Out of School Youth (OSY) are persons aged 15 to 24 years who are not attending school, have not finished any college or post-secondary course, and are not working.
A Balik-Aral learner is a learner who went back to school and resumed study after year/years of dropping out or discontinuing study.
An Indigenous Peoples (IP) learner is a learner born of either or both parents who are IP as defined in Republic Act No. 8371 or the Indigenous Peoples Republic Act of 1997.
A Special Education (SPED) learner is a learner in need of basic education that takes into account the special needs of both the differently abled and the gifted.
The Philippine Educational Placement Test (PEPT) is a battery of tests covering five basic subjects for validating and accrediting knowledge and skills in academic areas gained through informal and non-formal means, for re-entry into formal school, job promotion, entry to job training, employment, and self-fulfillment.

Early registration schedule and advocacy duties

Early registration in public schools for incoming Kindergarten, Grades 1, 7, and 11 learners is conducted from the last Saturday of January to the last Friday of February of each year.
Incoming Grades 2-6, Grades 8-10, and Grade 12 are treated as pre-registered.
Early registration is conducted to:
- ensure registration of all new entrants for Kindergarten, Grades 1, 7, and 11
- locate, identify, and register OSC and OSY in the community who may be characterized by enumerated vulnerable or exceptional circumstances.
Offices conduct an Information Dissemination and Advocacy Campaign to raise public awareness of early registration, including through official DepEd channels.
The policy designates specific roles among:
- Central Office units
- Regional Office (RO) and schools division leadership (Regional Director and Schools Division Superintendent (SDS))
- school-level activities and designated enrollment desks/centers.

Eligibility and documentary requirements by grade

All public and private schools, and SUCs and LUCs offering basic education must follow the policy’s eligibility standards and minimum documentary requirements for enrollment to establish learner identity.
For Kinder:
- the child must be aged five years old by August 31st of the school year they will enroll
- the documentary requirements are PSA Birth Certificate and related Kindergarten eligibility basis under DepEd’s Omnibus Policy on Kindergarten.
For Grade 1:
- learners who have completed Kindergarten in DepEd accredited schools and centers must submit Kindergarten Certificate of Completion and PSA Birth Certificate
- learners aged six years old and above by August 31st who have not completed Kindergarten must submit Result of ECCD Assessment Checklist and PSA Birth Certificate
- learners who completed Kindergarten in non-DepEd accredited learning and day-care centers, or are home-schooled, must submit Result of PEPT or PVT and PSA Birth Certificate.
For Grade 7:
- Grade 6 Graduate learners submit SF 9 Grade 6 (formerly Form 138), PEPT Passer or A&E Test Passer, plus Result of PEPT or A&E Test, and PSA Birth Certificate.
For Grade 11:
- Grade 10 Completer learners submit SF 9 Grade 10 (formerly Form 138), PEPT Passer or A&E Test Passer, plus Result of PEPT or A&E Test, and PSA Birth Certificate.
If there is no PSA Birth Certificate, the parent or guardian must submit a Birth Certificate (late registration) from the local civil registrar or a barangay certification containing the child’s basic identifying information, including name, parents’ names, date of birth, and sex.
If required documents are not submitted by the end of early registration, learners are given until August 31st of the school year they will enroll to produce and submit the required documents.
A birth certificate for enrollment purposes is attached to the learner’s permanent record and is submitted once during the duration of a child’s basic education.

Submission, pre-registration tagging, and LIS encoding

Learners without an existing profile in the LIS must fill out the Basic Education Enrollment Form provided as Annex 2 and submit a PSA Birth Certificate or a local civil registrar record, or a barangay certification to the registration person in charge.
Information from submitted identity documents must be encoded in the LIS to create learner profiles and to tag the learners as pre-registered.
LRNs are issued only on the first date of attendance, and LRN creation/uniqueness is governed by LIS “search learner” capability.
Learners with existing LIS accounts and LRNs must still be tagged as pre-registered, but must update their information by filling out the Basic Education Enrollment Form; school personnel must ensure LIS updates are reflected.
Learners aged 6–12 enrolling in basic education for the first time are enrolled in appropriate grade levels based on:
- completion of the Kindergarten Catch-up Education Program (enrolled in Grade 1)
- PEPT result (enrolled in appropriate grade level based on PEPT result).
Learners aged 13 and above enrolling in basic education for the first time must be advised to undergo the ALS program.

Conduct of general enrollment and official enrollment

Pre-registered learners must report to public schools on the first day of classes, ensured by public elementary and secondary school officials with local community officials.
A week before opening of classes, the school posts learners’ respective class/section assignments so learners can be guided to their classes.
Learners who are not pre-registered must proceed to the enrollment desk located in the principal’s office, guidance office, or another designated strategic location in the school for enrollment and subsequent placement in a specific section.
Class advisers must take note of the learners’ first date of attendance.
Only learners with a first date of attendance and complete documentary requirements are considered officially enrolled.
Section assignments and date of first attendance must be finalized through the LIS.

Temporary enrollment, late enrollment, and learner promotion limits

Transferees from public and private schools in the Philippines who fail to submit SF 9 (formerly Form 138) during early registration or upon enrollment may be temporarily enrolled until submission of required documents on or before August 31st of the current school year.
Temporarily enrolled learners must submit an Affidavit of Undertaking (provided as Annex 3) signed by the parent/guardian to qualify for temporary enrollment.
The receiving school must issue a Temporary Progress Report Card (provided as Annex 4) signed by the class adviser for parental monitoring.
The Temporary Progress Report Card is inadmissible for transfer and enrollment purposes; it is used only for progress monitoring.
After complete submission of documentary requirements, the learner is tagged as officially enrolled in the LIS.
If documentary requirements are not completed, the learner retains the temporarily enrolled status and cannot be:
- officially promoted to a higher grade level
- officially graduate from the school.
Temporary learners do not receive recognition should they attain qualifying average and other criteria for academic honors, and the receiving school does not release official documents such as SF 9, SF 10, Certificate of Completion, Diploma, etc., while requirements remain incomplete.
A school may accept late enrollees if the learner can meet:
- eighty percent (80%) of the prescribed number of school days for each school year, and
- the quarterly requirement to pass the grade level as governed by the latest applicable DepEd issuances.
If the learner cannot meet both the school-day requirement and quarterly requirement, the school head may exercise discretion to accept the enrollee and implement catch-up activities or interventions under acceptable circumstances.

Fees: prohibition and limits during assistance release

No fees shall be collected from schoolchildren during enrollment.
Membership fees and contributions that may be collected on a voluntary basis after enrollment must follow the latest existing applicable DepEd issuances.
Non-payment of voluntary contributions must not prohibit enrollment of learners.
Authorized voluntary contribution collection must not be done during the schedule of release of financial assistance for Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) or 4Ps recipients.
In no instance must the school collect contribution out of the 4Ps subsidy.

Learners moving in/out and transfer to ALS

Learners who enroll in the middle of the school year from other schools are tagged as “moved in”.
Learners previously enrolled in the school who enroll in other schools in the middle of the school year are tagged as “moved out.”
Learners may move in/out from one school to another at any time during the school year for valid reasons such as family migration and disasters.
Learners moving in/out from schools within the Philippines must submit the latest Learner’s Progress Report Card (SF 9 formerly Form 138) upon enrollment.
The receiving school must coordinate with the originating school to verify the learner’s grade level and last quarterly grade.
Learners who fail to submit required documents upon moving in are considered temporarily enrolled, and temporary enrollment guidelines apply.
Learners who transfer to ALS are not considered school leavers.
For ALS transfers, the adviser must make notations on the learner’s School Form 1, including the date of effectivity of transfer, the ALS program attended, and the name of the ALS facilitator.

Enrollment data management and data updates

Every learner in the basic education system must be issued only one unique and permanent LRN for use throughout the entire basic education program.
The LIS “search learner” facility must determine whether the learner already has an LRN, and learner uniqueness must be established before creating a new LRN.
Results of early registration must be encoded by the School Head in the LIS under the Early Registration module.
Enrollment data on the first day of attendance up to the last school day of the opening month must be encoded by the School Head in the LIS under the Quick Count module.
Private schools, SUCs, and LUCs with different school calendars must encode on the first day of classes.
The latest existing applicable DepEd issuances govern updating Basic Education Statistics in the LIS and Enhanced Basic Education Information System (EBEIS) at the start (Beginning of School Year (BoSY)) and end (End of School Year (EoSY)) of the school year.
All educational institutions offering basic education must ensure they have updated school profiles and other data elements in the EBEIS, and must ensure enrolled learners are registered and have updated profiles in the LIS.

Monitoring, technical assistance, and review

The Policy, Planning, Research and Development Division and Quality Assurance Division of the Regional Offices (ROs) and the School Governance Operations Division of the Schools Division Offices (SDOs) must conduct monitoring, provide technical assistance, and gather issues, best practices, and feedback.
SDOs must ensure that School Heads comply with the policy provisions.
Progress monitoring must be conducted during early registration and actual enrollment.
The Central Office must jointly lead the review of implementation through Bureau of Learning Delivery, Bureau of Human Resource and Organizational Development—School Effectiveness Division, and Planning Service.

Repeal, consistency, and enumerated references

DepEd Order No. 03, s. 2018 repeals DepEd Order No. 6, s. 2017 titled “Multi-Year Implementing Guidelines on Early Registration.”
All prior DepEd Orders, memoranda, and other related issuances inconsistent with the policy are rescinded, repealed, or modified accordingly.
The policy’s references include DepEd Order 54, s. 2016 (Guidelines on the Request and Transfer of Learner’s School Records), DepEd Order 55, s. 2016 (National Assessment of Student Learning for K to 12), DepEd Order 52, s. 2016 (Data Collection in LIS and EBEIS for BoSY 2016-2017), and DepEd Order 47, s. 2016 (Omnibus Policy on Kindergarten).
Additional referenced issuances include DepEd Order 4, s. 2014 (Adoption of Modified School Forms), DepEd Order 41, s. 2012 (Revised Guidelines on the Opening of Classes), and DepEd Order 88, s. 2010 (2010 Revised Manual of Regulations for Private Schools in Basic Education).
The policy also references DepEd Order 99, s. 2009 (Organization of Headstart Classes for the Gifted and Talented Preschoolers) and DECS Service Manual 2000, among other named test and placement-related issuances.