Current educational and scientific policy must address several critical issues, including not so much the training of highly qualified personnel as the adaptation of the population to exist in a high-tech sociocultural environment. The implementation of the chosen model for developing the scientific and educational system of the Russian Federation determines the strategic direction of its reform in the short term. This research examines the use of smart regulatory tools in state education and science policy. The author analyzed the experience of several countries in terms of the use of legal means of smart regulation in the reformation of education. The research evaluated the potential effectiveness of self-regulation in the management of educational organizations of various levels. The author analyzed the array of regulations governing educational and scientific relations in the Russian Federation and identified barriers to introducing elements of smart regulation in this area. The research applied general scientific methods of logical knowledge: analysis and synthesis are used to analyze the experience of several countries in terms of the application of smart regulation in reforming education. The systemic method allowed the author to assess the key areas of implementation of educational and scientific policy and develop recommendations for its improvement. The author applied the formal-legal method and the method of legal hermeneutics to analyze normative-legal acts regulating educational relations in Russia.