If you’re concerned about your child’s learning, talk to your child’s teacher or your school’s principal. It is important that your child’s needs are assessed, so support can be provided, and the most suitable programme can be developed.

Some children with learning support needs will have an Individual Education Plan (IEP).  This is a programme for students with learning support needs, which can be developed by you, your child, your child’s teacher, specialists and the Ministry’s learning support team as appropriate.

You and your child’s early intervention service, school or kura can decide if your child should have an IEP.  Your child’s specialist/s might suggest teaching strategies that could help your child. If you have an IEP, it should be reviewed at least twice a year, in a meeting with all those who developed it.

Schools should meet the needs of all students, and a range of support is available to them. All schools receive Support for Inclusion Funding (previously known as the Special Education Grant (SEG)) to help students with moderate learning support needs.

Schools can also get funding for Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCOs, sometimes called Learning Support Coordinators or LSCs) to help the school staff meet all students’ needs.

Schools can also call on specially trained teachers, school-based resource teachers of learning and behaviour (RTLBs), who support and work within schools to assist staff to meet the needs of students with moderate learning and/or behavioural difficulties.

There’s other funding available like:

• School High Health Needs Funding – for a support person to supervise your child, help them with physical tasks, or step in to stop an incident or respond appropriately in a health crisis situation. For more information, go to “School High Health Needs Funding” on the Ministry of Education’s website.
• In-class support funding – this is extra funding to contribute toward a teacher aide. For more information, go to “In-class support funding” on the Ministry of Education’s website.

If your child has high social, behavioural or educational needs, you should talk to someone from learning support services at the Ministry of Education. For your regional office, go to “Learning support services” and navigate to “Your local support contacts”.

If problems come up, you should consider taking your issue to the principal and then the board of trustees.

Some children have teacher aide funding to keep them safe. Examples include young children with life-threatening allergies, or children whose learning disabilities or physical impairments mean they need to be supervised at all times. This funding is through the Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS), the School High Health Needs Fund (SHHNF) scheme or the In-class support funding scheme.  You can find out more at “Students requiring learning support” on the Ministry of Education’s website.

If these children don’t receive enough teacher aide funding to cover all the school hours, parents may feel that they have to choose between their child not attending school for all the regular hours, or personally paying for more teacher aide hours. Schools sometimes even suggest these options as a plan for a disabled student.

Parents and students shouldn’t have to accept either of these options. All children have the right to be safe at school, for all the hours they are there. So, what can you do?

• Talk to the school:
  • Start with asking for a face-to-face meeting with the principal or the appropriate senior member of staff. Lay out your concerns, and ask how the school plans to meet your child’s needs.
  • If you’re not happy with their response, write to the school’s board of trustees, explaining the problem and asking how they propose to solve it. Be sure to mention that your child has the legal right to enrol, attend and receive education at state schools, under section 34 of the Education and Training Act 2020.
• Go to the Ministry of Education
  • If your child receives ORS or SHHNF funding for a teacher aide, you can ask for an informal or formal review of the case. You can start with an informal review (just asking over the phone or in person) then go to a formal one (by asking in writing), or you can skip straight to a formal one. The process is laid out on the Ministry of Education website (go to “Teachers aide resource funding” on the Ministry of Education’s website).  If you’re seeking a formal review, you need to write to the Ministry of Education requesting a formal review and setting out the reasons for your request.
  • If your child was denied ORS funding, or if they’re part of the ORS scheme but something has changed since they started, you can go through the review and appeal process described above.
  • If you still don’t have enough funding for your child to participate fully, there are two other places you can go – the Human Rights Commission and the Ombudsman.
• Go to the Human Rights Commission:
  • If your child isn’t getting full and free access to education, you can complain to the Human Rights Commission.
  • Start by contacting them directly by phone, or by filling out the complaint form on their website. One of their staff will then contact you to talk about the situation, arrange mediation between you and the school, or between you and the Ministry of Education, to solve the problem.  If the mediation doesn’t work, the next option is to make a claim in the Human Rights Review Tribunal.
  • See the HRC website for more information: www.tikatangata.org.nz
• Go to the Ombudsman:
  • The Ombudsman has a specific role in making sure the UN Disability Convention is being followed in New Zealand. If you complain to them about your child’s access to education, they have the power to investigate the problem and make recommendations to government departments.
  • You can make a complaint to the Ombudsman through their website or in writing (see: “The Ombudsman: Watchdogs over government”).

Education and Training Act 2020, s 34 Bill of Rights Act 1993, s 19

These are your main options:

• Talk to the school:
  • Ask for a meeting with the principal. Remind them of the laws that apply:
    • The Education and Training Act 2020 says children with learning support needs should have the same access to state education as any other child.
    • The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 says that public institutions, like state schools, can’t discriminate against children on the grounds of disability.
    • The Ministry of Education provides funding for students with learning support needs.
  • Ask the school to arrange a meeting between you, the school, and someone from the Ministry of Education to solve the problem. If this doesn’t help, write a letter to the school board of trustees, saying the same things. They will have to respond to you. Keep copies of all the letters.
• Go to the Ministry of Education:
  • There’s a Learning Support section of the Ministry of Education that should be able to help you (they used to be called the “Special Education” section).
  • For information or to ask for support, contact your local Ministry of Education office, or phone 0800 622 222 or email learning.supportmailbox@education.govt.nz
  • If you think the staff member you’re dealing with at the Ministry isn’t doing enough to give your child full access to education, ask to speak to their manager. Keep doing that until you get an acceptable result.
• Go to the Human Rights Commission or the Ombudsman:
  • If the school and the Ministry of Education don’t solve the problem, your next step is to go to the Human Rights Commission or the Ombudsman (see above).

Education and Training Act 2020, ss 79–88 Education (Stand-Down, Suspension, Exclusion, and Expulsion) Rules 1999, rule 14 Case: [2014] NZHC 253

The most serious disciplinary steps a state school can take against a student are to:

• stand them down (for a maximum of five days at a time, and for no more than a total of 10 days in a year), or
• suspend them (this can be for longer), or exclude or expel them (which is permanent).

But the school can only do this because of either:

• “gross misconduct or continual disobedience” that is a “harmful or dangerous example to other students at the school” or
• behaviour that’s likely to cause serious harm to the student or to other students.

These are meant to be last resort options, after the school has tried everything else to improve the situation.

“Continual disobedience” is when a student regularly and deliberately disobeys the school rules, or refuses to do what they are told. Behavioural problems caused by recognised medical conditions shouldn’t usually be considered deliberate, and so shouldn’t be categorised as “continual disobedience”. There has to be deliberate non-cooperation or defiance.

Before standing down a student for being continually disobedient, the school should show it has made every reasonable effort to find ways to address the student’s behaviour. The school also has to properly investigate all of the facts before making any decision.

If the school does decide to suspend or exclude, there are rules about the process. For example, the principal has to write a report with all relevant information about the decision to suspend a student.

If your child has been stood down, suspended or excluded, go to “Stand-down, suspensions, exclusions and expulsions“.

You can also call one of these numbers for legal advice and or help:

• Student Rights Service: 0800 499 488
• Youth Law: 0800 884 529
• Children’s Commissioner: 0800 224 453

For more information on the legal process the school has to follow at the Ministry of Education’s website under “For parents and whānau“.

Students with disabilities have the same rights as other students to all parts of education, including sitting national qualifications, like NCEA.

Students doing NCEA can apply for a range of “Special Assessment Conditions” for both internal and external assessments. These could include things like exam papers in Braille or large print, extra time for rest breaks, a reader or writer, and so on.  The student’s school will make an application for special assessment conditions on their behalf.

You can find more information on NZQA’s website under “Special Assessment Conditions“.

The school can’t do this – the camp is generally seen as part of the school curriculum.

Schools can access extra staff and extra funding for children with high or very high needs. Parents should argue that this extra funding could assist a child to go on camp.

Think about these questions:

• what extra assistance or resources does your child need to go on camp?
• how could that extra support be provided?
• who could help you to get extra support? (IHC, for example, provides services to people with learning disabilities and their families.)

Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, ss 36, 37 Education and Training Act 2020, s 34

Yes. The school is responsible for making sure all students, including disabled students, can get around safely. They can get help from the Property and Learning Support teams at the Ministry of Education.

It’s a good idea to tell the school about your child’s needs before they start, to give the school time to make any changes.