The Board functions under the overall supervision of the Controlling Authority which is vested with the Secretary Education, Government of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development. The Board has various statutory committees which are advisory in nature. The Governing Body of the Board is constituted as per its rules and regulations. The recommendations of all the committees are placed for approval before the Governing Body of the Board.

Chairman is the Chief Executive of the Board assisted by five Heads of Departments : the Secretary, the Director (Academic), the Controller of Examinations, HOD (Edusat, R & D and vocational Education ) and the HOD (Spl. Exams., Projects & Training ). The Secretary (Education), Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India is the Controlling Authority of the Board, and appoints the Chairman and Heads of Departments.

The Secretary CBSE is the Chief Administrative Officer responsible for the matters relating to Administration, Audit and Accounts, Public Relations, Legal and grant of Affiliation to schools.

The Director (Academics) is the head of the Academic Unit. The major functions of the unit include developing the curriculum for all the subjects in academic and vocational streams at the secondary and senior secondary levels, to organize teacher training workshops, to develop support material for the guidance of the teachers and students, to publish text books for secondary and senior secondary classes and monitoring the academic projects.

The Controller of Examinations is responsible for all matters concerning examinations and administration of examinations, the major areas being pre and post examination work, coordination with regional offices for conducting annual secondary and senior school certificate examinations and All India Pre-Medical/Pre-Dental Entrance Examination.

The HOD (Edusat, Research and Development and vocational Education) is responsible for all matters concerning Distance Education through Education Satellite launched by ISRO and designing of curriculum for vocational subjects.

The HOD (Special Exams, Projects & Training) is responsible for all matters concerning the All India Engineering Entrance Exams. And Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Selection Test etc.