CBSE LOC 2026-27: Class 10 & 12 Candidate List Deadlines

What LOC is, and who has to do it

LOC stands for List of Candidates. It is the single document by which a CBSE-affiliated school registers its students for the Class 10 and Class 12 board examinations — in this case, the 2027 board exams of the 2026–27 session. Everything that matters about a student as far as the Board is concerned comes out of the LOC: the name, date of birth, gender, parent details and subjects entered there are what get printed on the admit card and on the marksheet. A mistake entered in October lives on until a correction process fixes it, and not every mistake can be fixed later.

Two things parents and students often misunderstand. First, the school files the LOC, not the student — the submission happens through the school's login on the CBSE portal, for regular students. (Private candidates enter their own details separately.) Your job is to supply correct information to the school and check it when shown. Second, the LOC is also the fee-paying step: examination fees are collected alongside it, so the school needs its student data clean before it can close the financial side.

One more scope point that matters this cycle: for Class 10, this LOC covers the first of the two board examinations — the LOC for the second examination is a separate, later submission. For Class 12, this LOC registers students for the single main examination.

The 2026–27 LOC timeline

CBSE's LOC process for this session ran in stages. A prior intimation went out on 10 September 2026 asking schools to prepare their data; the detailed LOC submission circular followed on 17 September 2026 (posted on the CBSE website on 21 September); CBSE then held a webinar for schools on registration and LOC data on 29 September, with a press release the same day saying the process covers nearly 32,000 affiliated schools. A separate circular on 23 September gave guidance on corrections to demographic particulars.

The submission and correction schedule schools are working to — note that the deadlines split by how the school pays, which the single "30 October" figure in most summaries hides:

The portal closes at 11:59 pm on each deadline date, and the circular as reported is explicit that no extension will be given on any last date. CBSE's mid-October reminder to principals made the same position blunt: schools should not wait for the last day. If your school pays by challan, its real late deadline is 26 October, not 30 — ask the school office which route it used before assuming you still have time.

Note that the LOC window is not the exam date sheet — the circular gives no examination dates. The date sheet for the 2027 boards comes separately, later in the session.

The examination fee, in full

The fee schools collect with the LOC, as reported from the circular and cross-confirmed across three independent reports:

Visually impaired candidates pay no examination fee. Schools collect the fee from students and remit it to CBSE with the LOC.

Do the arithmetic once, because the practical line is the one families underestimate. A Class 12 student in India with six subjects, two of them practical, pays ₹1,600 + ₹320 + (2 × ₹160) = ₹2,240 inside the normal window. The same student whose school drifts into the late window pays ₹2,240 + ₹2,000 = ₹4,240 — the late fee alone is nearly the price of the entire examination. If your school asks for materially more than the figure your combination produces from this table, ask for the break-up in writing.

What schools were told to get right

CBSE's guidance to schools is specific, and worth parents reading because it tells you exactly what to check in your child's entry:

1. Candidate detailsfull name (spelled exactly as on official records), date of birth, gender, category and parent/guardian names.
2. Subjectsthe subject list must match what the student has actually chosen and studied — CBSE singled this point out in its reminder. The subject combination confirmed now carries into the board registration.
3. Photograph and signatureof each candidate in the specified format.
4. Eligibility completenessevery eligible student on the school's rolls must appear on the list — nobody left out.
5. Timely fee payment, without which the submission is incomplete.

What students and parents should actually do — a numbered checklist

1. Ask the school for your verification data before final submission.Most schools share the LOC data or the data verification slip with students and parents. If yours has not, ask the class teacher or school office — in writing — while the window is still open.
2. Check your name character by characteragainst your school record and birth certificate — not against how the family spells it informally. This name is what will be printed on the Class 10 certificate, which serves as legal proof of age for years.
3. Check both parents'/guardian's names and your date of birththe same way. A wrong date of birth entered now is the single hardest LOC error to unwind later.
4. Check subjects and subject codes, especially the easily confused pairsHindi A vs Hindi B and Mathematics Standard vs Basic in Class 10; Hindi Core vs Elective and Mathematics vs Applied Mathematics in Class 12. A wrong code is a wrong paper on exam day.
5. Check your candidate category(regular, essential repeat, improvement, as applicable) and your photograph, if the school has uploaded one.
6. Report every error to the school immediately, in writing, and keep the acknowledgement.Do not wait for the admit-card stage, and do not assume anything corrects itself.
7. If an error survives submission, use the correction window of 2–4 November 2026— the school corrects genuine errors in LOC data then, against the data verification slip. After 4 November, the circular as reported allows no correction.
8. Keep your fee receiptshowing the combination you paid for (subjects plus practicals). It is your evidence if the subjects on the admit card do not match what you paid for.

What cannot be fixed later — read this before treating November as a safety net

The correction window fixes data errors; it is not a second decision window. As reported from the circular, after LOC submission CBSE does not consider requests for changes of subjects, admission to Classes 10 and 12 except in transfer cases, and certain CWSN (children with special needs) concessions that were not claimed in time. In plain terms: a typing error in a name can be corrected in November; a change of mind about a subject cannot. Choose the subject combination as if November did not exist, because for choices — as opposed to typos — it effectively does not.

For Class 10 families there is one extra consideration this cycle: CBSE's two-examination structure means the subjects confirmed in this LOC are the subjects of the first examination, and they frame what can be offered in the second. Understand from the school how your child's subject choices interact with that before the data is finalised.

Where the truth is

Do not plan around WhatsApp forwards, school-parents-group summaries or old circulars — this session's dates differ from previous years', and the challan/online split is exactly the kind of detail forwards drop. The authoritative documents are the LOC submission circular (issued 17 September, posted 21 September 2026), the 29 September press release on the LOC webinar, and the examination circulars page on cbse.gov.in. Anything that contradicts those is stale, whatever its forwarding count.

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