11/07/2024
Tessa
[FYI request #27186 email]
Tēnā koe Tessa
OIA: 1330402 – Summary of pupil exclusions in the last 5 years
Thank you for your email of 9 June 2024 to the Ministry of Education (the Ministry) requesting the
following information:
1. The number of Year 1-8 pupils excluded from New Zealand schools in the last 5 years,
broken down by the length of time between their exclusion and placement by the Ministry
into a school.
2. The total FTE (not including vacant positions) at the Ministry of Education who have as
part of their role, the responsibility of finding placements for excluded students, as at the
end of each of the last 4 calendar years, and a monthly figure since the beginning of 2024
to present.
3. The total number of Year 1-8 students who have been excluded and are presently (at 1
June 2024) awaiting placement into another school. I also request this same number as at
1 June 2023.
Your request has been considered under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act).
It is important to note that stand-downs, suspensions, exclusions, and expulsions are not
measures of student behaviour but measures of a school’s reaction to such behaviours. What one
school may choose to suspend for, another may not. The number of these events should not be
used as a proxy measure for total student behaviour.
Schools are required to find a new school for excluded students under 16 years as soon as
possible (by the 10th school day after the day of the board’s decision to exclude, as per Section
81(7) of the Education and Training Act 2020). The principal must inform the Ministry of Education
if a student is not enrolled at another school after 10 school days. If the principal cannot arrange for
a student to be enrolled at another school, the Ministry wil help to find another school for the
student to attend and, if necessary, direct a student to be enrolled in a school.
The Education and Training Act 2020 Section 82 details the Ministry’s legal obligations to arrange
for the placement when the schools did not succeed finding an appropriate placement
https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2020/0038/latest/LMS177665.html.
Wellington National Office, 1 The Terrace, Levels 5 to 14, Wellington 6011
PO Box 1666, Wellington 6140, DX SR51201 Phone: +64 4 463 8000
I am setting out the number of Year 1-8 students excluded from New Zealand state and state
integrated schools in 2019 to 2023, broken down by the length of time between their exclusion and
placement into a school in response to
part one of your request in
Table One below. Please note
that values less than five have been withheld under section 9(2)(a) of the Act, to protect the privacy
of individual students. Where this is the case, these figures have been replaced with letter x.
Please note ‘placement into a school’ includes students returning to the suspending school, re-
enrolled in a new school, approved home-schooling exemption or accessing correspondence
schooling through Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu.
Regarding
part two of your request
, the Ministry has published Guidelines in 2009 for principals
and boards on stand-downs, suspensions, exclusions and expulsions
https://assets.education.govt.nz/public/Documents/School/Managing-and-supporting-
students/Stand-downs-suspensions-exclusions-and-expulsions-guidelines/17-5-18-
SuspensionLegalGuideWEB-1.pdf
Page 29 details the Ministry’s role in re-enrolling an excluded student. Before placing an excluded
student, the Ministry must first consult all relevant parties, the parents, the board and other
interested parties. Page 39 talks about sections 16, 17C, 17D of the Education Act 1989, and
describe powers of the Secretary while placing an excluded student younger than 16 years.
Finding a placement for an excluded student is done on a case-by-case basis, as every child has
different needs. We are unable to quantify how many FTEs are involved in replacing an excluded
child, as this could include a number of roles dependent on the circumstances of the exclusion. I
am therefore refusing
part two of your request under section 18(g) of the Act, as the information
requested is not held by the Ministry, and I have no grounds for believing that it is either held by, or
more closely related to the functions of, another department or organisation subject to the Act.
Regarding
part three I can advise that as of 26 June 2024, there were 110 excluded students
awaiting placement into another school. ‘Placement in another school’ refers to students returning
to the suspended school, re-enrolled in a new school, approved home -schooling exemption or
accessed correspondence schooling through Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu. Please note that this
data is live and subject to change.
As this data is live and changing, and only exists at the present time, we are unable to provide you
with the same figures from 2023. Therefore, I need to refuse the aspect of your request under
section 18(e) of the Act as this information does not exist.
As required under section 9(1) of the Act, I have considered the public interest in releasing the
information withheld. I do not consider the public interest considerations favouring the release of
this information are sufficient to outweigh the need to withhold it at this time.
Please note, we may publish this response on our website after five working days. Your name and
contact details wil be removed.
Thank you again for your email. You have the right to ask an Ombudsman to review my decision
on your request, in accordance with section 28 of the Act. You can do this by writing to
[email address] or to Office of the Ombudsman, PO Box 10152, Wellington 6143.
OIA: 1330402
Nāku noa, nā
Julia Hardacre
Group Manager System Delivery
Te Mahau | Te Pae Aronui (Operations and Integration)
OIA: 1330402
Table One: The number of Year 1-8 students excluded from state and state integrated
schools in the last 5 years, broken down by the length of time between their exclusion
and placement into a school.
Length of Time Excluded
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
0-30 days
40
25
21
43
39
31-90 days
163
124
110
141
206
91-180 days
123
75
66
75
133
181-365 days
44
23
29
41
28
365+ days
6
x
x
5
0
Total number of students
371
250
229
303
405
Please note the Ministry has been involved in the placement of all excluded students in the data
represented.
Caveats
• Data extracted as at 26/06/2024.
• Days: Calendar days.
• The year represents the year as at the date of exclusion, and students may have been
placed in a subsequent year.
• The table shows the number of students returning to the suspended school, re-enrolled in a
new school, approved home -schooling exemption or accessed correspondence schooling
through Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu.
• Students excluded more than once during a year with different length of times are counted
once in each length of time grouping, they were excluded for that year.
• Students are only counted once in ‘total number of students’ excluded in each year.
• It is important to note that stand-downs, suspensions, exclusions, and expulsions are not
measures of student behaviour but measures of a school’s reaction to such behaviours.
What one school may choose to suspend for, another may not. The number of these events
should not be used as a proxy measure for total student behaviour.
• Exclusions are subsets of suspensions and should not be added to suspensions.
• An exclusion follows the termination of a student’s enrolment at a suspension meeting.
Exclusions are given to students under the age of sixteen, with the requirement that the
student enrols elsewhere.
OIA: 1330402
Document Outline
