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The number of Victorian students seeking special conditions for final school exams hit a record high last year, with mental health grounds making up nearly half of all applications for rest breaks, separate rooms and other provisions.
Data from the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority shows it received more than 13,000 applications for special examination arrangements in 2025 – from among about 50,000 students sitting VCE exams – which was a 19 per cent increase on the year before.
VCE “exemptions”, which are more formally referred to as special arrangements, do not exempt students from meeting VCE completion requirements but instead include provisions for additional time to complete exams, extra rest breaks, text-to-voice software, sitting exams in a room separate from other students, exam papers in Braille, and larger text.
Approvals for exemptions were granted to 99.6 per cent of students who applied in government schools, 99.8 per cent of students at independent and private schools and 99.9 per cent of students at Catholic schools.
Mental health reasons accounted for the majority of applications, reaching 43.9 per cent in 2025 compared with 40.8 per cent in 2021.
Health impairment was the next largest category with 22.3 per cent of applications, and those with a specific learning disability made up 13.4 per cent of applications for last year’s exams.
Approvals are primarily based on schools providing evidence to the VCAA, and existing arrangements for the students.
Russell Jackson, an experienced exam supervisor, said he had seen a steady increase in students granted special provisions for mental health needs. However, he said many ended up not using the provisions they were granted, which were often rest breaks or extra time.
“We’d often get a long, long list of kids, and we’d have to put them in separate rooms, or sometimes in an individual room and I didn’t mind because you could absolutely see the look on the kid that they needed it, and that’s fair enough … but a lot of those students who had a special consideration didn’t use it,” he said.
There was also pressure on students from parents, who saw the exemptions as a way to help their child perform better, Jackson said. But he noted that there was added pressure on students to do well, which was increasing anxiety ahead of exams.
RMIT inclusive education lecturer Mariko Francis said that while the data showed a marked increase in applications, “that does not automatically mean the system is over-approving applications”.
Francis said the increase was due to a range of reasons and pointed to the state’s disability inclusion reforms, which focused attention on functional needs, prior adjustments and any evidence of barriers to learning.
“Student mental health needs have become more visible since COVID-19, and mental health is now the largest approved category.”
She said it was important to ask whether the decisions were being made consistently, transparently, and equitably across sectors, schools and student groups.
According to the state’s exam authority, the growth in special exemption applications since 2023 has been driven by a “streamlined” application process, which emphasises a school’s judgment and any prior provisions granted to a student.
“Special Examination Arrangements (SEAs) are made available to students with disabilities, illnesses or other adverse circumstances to ensure all students have a level playing field when sitting their VCE examinations,” a VCAA spokesman said.
Applications for mental health exemptions nearly tripled across government schools between 2021 and 2025 – from 1347 to 3322.
Independent and private schools – which educate about 21 per cent of the state’s secondary students – accounted for 37 per cent of the mental health exemption applications last year. The number of applications in that sector increased from 1205 in 2021 to 2995 last year.
Approved applications for students have grown relatively consistently across government, Catholic and independent sectors over the past 10 years, according to the VCAA.
In order for a child to be granted special exam arrangements, their school needs to submit an application in the year the student first enrols into a VCE unit. Those who are approved for special exam arrangements can expect those arrangements to be the same in other units.
Notice of a new diagnosis or deterioration of an existing condition can be submitted to support an existing application.
In a 2025 report into the state’s exam authority, governance expert Yehudi Blacher said the administrative workload for the staff was growing, with a team of three staff members having to manually review more than 10,000 applications.
“The current process is also seen as difficult for many schools to navigate, giving rise to unnecessary delays and potential equity concerns,” Blacher wrote in the report.
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Caroline Schelle is an education reporter, and joined The Age in 2022. She previously covered courts at AAP.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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