Raising concerns and making complaints

Making a complaint to an outside organisation

Many of these organisations will only look at complaints if you have tried to resolve the issue through the school first but are unhappy with the outcome. If you haven’t talked to your school first, they will probably instruct you to (unless you’ve got a good reason why you can’t talk to the school, like a safety concern).

Many will also not respond to anonymous complaints.

Office of the Ombudsman

Deals with complaints about decisions by school boards and official information complaints

The Ombudsman can investigate complaints about decisions made by your school board. If the Ombudsman decides the board acted unfairly, it can make a recommendation to the school. The Ombudsman can’t make the school accept its recommendation, but most are accepted.

This is also who you can complain to if a school denies your request for official information.

Education Review Office (ERO)

Deals with complaints about how the school is run

ERO evaluates the running of every school and kura once every three years. Generally, ERO doesn’t deal with individual complaints. However, if several people make similar complaints, ERO will make a note and look at the issue when they next visit. In extreme cases, they can bring the next review forward or organise a special review.

All complaints are noted, and could affect the school’s ERO report, which is a public record.