New Legislation Reinforces Student Right To Education

A new law passing its final hurdle in Parliament today helps ensure school aged students don't miss out on the quality education they need, Education Minister Wyatt Creech said today.

"I am pleased Parliament is giving the Education Legislation Amendment Bill its third reading because the measures contained in it will translate into real improvements and actions in schools.

"During next year schools will be able to turn to alternative measures when disciplining students.

"It is very worrying for all involved when a student's behaviour disrupts the school, their classmates, and the delivery of education. The new suspension legislation will give schools more flexibility in sanctioning students and makes the process fairer."

Schools will be able to:

Stand down a student for a specified period. The stand down will reduce the likelihood of a suspension and acts as a warning shot to the student. It replaces the specified period suspension. A student may be stood down for up to five days in any school term but for not more than ten days in a school year.

Exclude a student under the age of 16 years - a student can be excluded from school but the school must take action to try to get the student into another school within ten days or else notify the Ministry of Education that they are unable to place the student.

"The changes should limit disruption in schools, and facilitate the return to school of suspended students."

Mr Creech said the suspension changes and the new truancy processes were designed to make certain that every child received a quality education.

"From next year a new mandatory and nationally consistent enrolment record will be created and transferred wherever a student goes. This is designed to track students to ensure they are not lost to the education system through truancy," Mr Creech said.

Under the new legislation, overcrowded schools will have more guidance when putting together their enrolment schemes to ensure greater community consultation and co-ordination with neighbouring schools.

"The enrolment scheme provisions still give students and parents the ability to choose which school to attend. But they also give some protections for students who want to go to a neighbourhood school if it is overcrowded.

"The solutions are sensible and encourage schools to continue improving quality and standards in order to attract students. This is far better than forcing children to go to their local school regardless of whether it will deliver the education the students need, as proposed by the Labour Party," Mr Creech said.

EDUCATION LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL

Key Features Enrolment Schemes - to avoid overcrowding or the likelihood of overcrowding in schools.

With regard to enrolment schemes the Bill:

ensures greater co-ordination of enrolment schemes and enables students to attend a reasonably convenient school
ensures consultation, by the board of a school which is developing an enrolment scheme, with the school's community, the local community and neighbouring boards
require that all schemes be agreed to by the Secretary for Education, to ensure greater co-ordination in the provision of school places and that fair processes are being put in place
provide that a board in developing a scheme, and the Secretary in agreeing to a scheme,
shall have regard to:
whether students can reasonably conveniently attend a school; and
the capacity of the existing network of schools; and
require boards annually to review the need for a scheme, but with a discretion available to the Secretary to waive this requirement for a period of up to three years.

Suspensions - the Bill gives schools more flexibility in sanctioning of students and makes the suspension process fairer.

With regard to suspensions the Bill:

achieves greater procedural fairness in suspension procedures;
recognises changed understandings on the rights of young people arising from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, in particular the right to speak and to be represented;
gives greater flexibility of response to student needs, in particular the introduction of a power to suspend ‘with conditions' aimed at facilitating the return of the student to the school;
introduces two new concepts to the suspension process:
stand-down - to be more available than the present suspension for a specified period and reduce the likelihood of early recourse to a suspension. The stand-down replaces the specified suspension. A student may be stood down for up to five days in any school term, but not for more than ten days a year.
exclusion - with a clear and short timeline for a report by the principal to the Secretary, to start follow up action to have the student enrolled in another school;
reduces the complexity of present legislation; and
gives the Secretary of Education the power to publish rules, after consultation, that will require principals and boards to comply with principles of natural justice.

Curriculum

With regard to curriculum, the requirements in state schools will all be brought into one Act - the Education Act 1989. The Act will then provide for:-

a statement of foundation policy on learning and assessment; and
appropriate flexibility for the New Zealand curriculum, or elements of it, to be gazetted by the Minister of Education to apply to particular years, particular state (including integrated) schools, or particular groups of students.

Truancy

The Secretary for Education will be able to make rules designed to keep a track of
students throughout the school system
A new mandatory and nationally consistent enrolment record will be created which can be transferred wherever the student goes.

Student Allowances
The Ministry of Education will have power to investigate fraud by past holders of student allowances.
Creates a new offence for failing to provide information or notify a change of circumstances. The following other matters are included in the Bill:
exemption from personal liability for commissioners
corrections to technical deficiencies in certain boards of trustee elections
allowing flexibility in the length of time a Commissioner can be appointed to a school if it co-incides with school trustee elections
updating of existing powers of officials of entry and inspection giving the Education Review Office power to review home schooling
greater flexibility in the length of the school half day.

A reserve power will be created for the Secretary to be able to require a board of trustee to engage specialist support to assist it in meeting its statutory obligations. This intermediate level intervention was discussed some years back with school sector organisations and was approved as an alternative to the very heavy step of dismissing a board and appointing a Commissioner. It will complement the present thrust of the School Support initiative.

More flexibility in the procedures for establishing and modifying schools. In particular the two stages of consultation required to establish a middle school or a new contributing primary school will be reduced to one. This enabling legislation will permit the adoption of new structures such as senior high schools.

alterations in the appointments procedures for members of the boards of the central Education agencies (such as the Education Training and Support Agency) and the ability for the names of those agencies to be changed from time to time as appropriate by Order in Council;
disclosure of course costs to students before they complete enrolment at tertiary institutions;
a minor wording change to align the requirements for financial reporting by Private Training Establishments with the requirements of the

Public Finance Act 1989;

remedying an oversight concerning replacement of a Commissioner at a school where because of its special role the membership of the board is gazetted;
a provision for an exemption from enrolment to expire when the student reaches the school leaving age; or
enrols at a registered school;
three property issues which will: v correct an oversight which technically excludes schools which are not on Crown land, e.g. integrated schools, from complying with codes governing the use of property in all state schools;
allow greater flexibility to boards of trustees to lease surplus school accommodation to early childhood centres;
allow leases of school property to third parties for longer than the ten years that is currently the case. This is desirable when there are community buildings such as a gymnasium or swimming pool on school property

Amendments to the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act 1975

The Bill responds to a range of technical issues raised by a review of Integration back in 1991-2. It will also give to the Minister of Education a discretion not presently available in the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act 1975. The Minister will be able to consider whether or not to accept an application for the integration of a private school. The Private Schools Conditional Integration Act 1975 at present requires proprietors of integrated schools to own the land and buildings which constitute the premises of the school. The Bill will allow integrated schools to use leased land or premises. to allow a Ministerial discretion to decline to accept applications for integration from private schools; to delete some obsolete references.