The DepEd Enrolment Form: What It Asks and Why

TL;DR: The DepEd enrolment form is the Basic Education Enrollment Form (BEEF), Annex B of DepEd Order No. 017, s. 2025, the Revised Basic Education Enrollment Policy that repealed the 2018 policy. Not everyone fills one in: it is for incoming Kindergarten, Grades 1, 7 and 11 learners and for transferees or returning learners, while continuing learners in Grades 2 to 6, 8 to 10 and 12 who already have LRNs only sign a confirmation slip. The form is free, marked not for sale, and may be duplicated or translated into the local language. Documents shown during early registration are for verification and are not collected, and the completed forms may not be kept longer than one year.

Every enrolment season, the same questions come back: which form does my child actually need, why does it ask about 4Ps and religion, and can a school charge for it. This guide answers those from the order that governs enrolment right now, block by block through the form. It is an explainer, not a portal: SchoolFinderPH is not DepEd, hosts no enrolment forms, and cannot enrol anyone. Official copies come from your school and from DepEd's own channels.

Which Form Does Your Child Need?

That depends entirely on whether the learner is already in the system.

Early registration and enrolment are different steps. Early registration is the pre-registration of new entrants for Kindergarten, Grades 1, 7 and 11, including transferees and first-time ALS learners; the order is explicit that taking part in it does not guarantee official enrolment. Its purpose is projection, so schools can plan sections, teachers and classrooms.

Disclaimer: enrolment schedules and school-level procedures are set by memoranda each year and differ by division. Confirm dates and submission arrangements with your school rather than relying on any online summary, including this one.

What Does the BEEF Actually Ask, and Why?

The version annexed to DepEd Order No. 017, s. 2025 is organised into blocks, and each block exists for a reason.

• School year, grade level, and LRN if applicable. The Learner Reference Number is what stops a child from being created twice in the Learner Information System when they transfer. There is also a non-graded option for Special Needs Education, and a Kindergarten question on whether the child attended any early learning programme.
• PSA birth certificate number, if available at registration. Identity and age eligibility, which is what determines grade placement at entry points.
• Name, birthdate, age, sex, place of birth, religion, mother tongue. Standard learner profile data that flows into the LIS and, in aggregate, into DepEd's planning statistics. The mother tongue entry no longer decides the language a young learner is taught in. Republic Act No. 12027, which lapsed into law on 10 October 2024, discontinued the mother tongue as the medium of instruction from Kindergarten to Grade 3, and under DepEd Order No. 020, s. 2025 the primary media of instruction there are Filipino and English from School Year 2025-2026, with regional languages as auxiliary media. DO 020 states plainly that there is no assigned mother tongue for any learner, and directs schools to survey the languages Key Stage 1 learners actually speak and use before setting a classroom medium.
• Indigenous peoples community and 4Ps household ID. Programme targeting. Both fields identify learners covered by specific national programmes and support, not eligibility screens for enrolment itself.
• Current and permanent address. Catchment planning and contact.
• Parent, mother maiden name, legal guardian, contact number. The school needs a reachable adult and a name that matches civil registry documents.
• Special Needs Education section. Either a diagnosis from a licensed medical specialist or a list of manifestations, plus whether the learner has a PWD ID. This is how a school knows to plan support, not a barrier to admission.
• Returning learner and transfer-in section, and semester for senior high school.
• Learning modality preference. Retained from the flexible learning years, for schools implementing modalities other than face-to-face.
• Certification and Data Privacy Act consent, signed by the parent or guardian.

What Documents Go With the Form?

The rule DepEd repeats across the policy is that learners are accepted on presentation of the minimum documentary requirements, and that a birth certificate is submitted only once across the whole of K to 12.

If the PSA birth certificate is not available, the order accepts a National ID or other primary government ID, a Certificate of Live Birth from the local civil registry, a marriage certificate, a PhilHealth ID, a PWD ID, a barangay certification establishing the child's identity, an affidavit of undertaking by the parents, a Certificate of Foundling, or a baptismal certificate, with the PSA copy to follow, and October 31 of the current school year as the stated cut-off.

One detail worth carrying to the registration desk: during early registration, documents are required for presentation only. The order states they are not subject to collection and are only for verification purposes. Our level-specific guides cover the rest of the checklist for Kindergarten, Grade 7 and Senior High School.

What Protects Families During Enrolment?

Four rules in the order do most of the work.

No fees. No voluntary fees shall be collected during early registration and enrolment as a prerequisite for registration, in line with DepEd Order No. 19, s. 2008. The forms themselves are printed with "THIS FORM IS NOT FOR SALE," may be duplicated solely for enrolment purposes, and may be translated into the local language. If anyone asks you to buy a form, that is the rule to cite. Our no collection policy guide covers what may and may not be asked for later in the year.

Acceptance. All types of learners, including out-of-school children, youth and adults, are to be accepted in any basic education institution on presentation of the minimum documentary requirements.

Temporary enrolment rather than refusal. A learner short of documents is defined as temporarily enrolled rather than turned away, with the expectation that the missing requirement follows.

Data limits. Personally identifiable information is used solely for the purpose it was collected for, is not disclosed to third parties, including school or teacher social media accounts, without explicit consent unless required by law, and access is limited to authorised personnel on a need-to-know basis. Completed BEEFs and confirmation slips may not be retained longer than one year before disposal under DepEd records rules.

What About Late Enrolment?

The order keeps the long-standing rule: a school may accept late enrollees provided the learner can still meet 80 percent of the prescribed number of school days and the period requirement to pass the grade level. Where that is not possible, the school head may still exercise discretion to accept the learner and put catch-up activities or interventions in place. If you are past the opening of classes, our guide to enrolling late covers the practical sequence.

Practical Tips Before You Fill Anything In

• Check whether you need the BEEF at all. A continuing learner with an LRN usually needs only the confirmation slip.
• Bring the LRN. It prevents duplicate records, which are tedious to unwind later.
• Write in capitals, in black or blue pen. The form instructions say so, and legibility matters because the data is encoded into the LIS.
• Answer the SNEd block honestly. It exists so a school can plan support; leaving it blank does not help your child.
• Do not pay for a form. Ask for the school head if anyone tries to sell you one.
• Keep your own copy of what you submitted, since the school itself may only keep the form for a year.

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Sources

• DepEd Order No. 017, s. 2025 - Revised Basic Education Enrollment Policy
• DepEd Order No. 03, s. 2018 - Basic Education Enrollment Policy (repealed by DO 017, s. 2025)
• DepEd Order No. 19, s. 2008 - Implementation of No Collection Policy in All Public Elementary and Secondary Schools
• DepEd Order No. 22, s. 2012 - Adoption of the Unique Learner Reference Number
• DepEd Order No. 020, s. 2025 - Policy on the Medium of Instruction for Kindergarten to Grade 3 Effective School Year 2025-2026 (PDF)
• Republic Act No. 12027 - discontinuing the use of the mother tongue as medium of instruction from Kindergarten to Grade 3 (LawPhil)
• SchoolFinderPH - Learner Reference Number Guide
• SchoolFinderPH - Kindergarten Enrollment Guide
• SchoolFinderPH - Grade 7 Enrollment Guide
• SchoolFinderPH - Senior High School Enrollment Guide
• SchoolFinderPH - No Collection Policy
• SchoolFinderPH - Late Enrollment in the Philippines