Education and Training Amendment Bill
This bill creates a new type of school called charter schools (also called kura hourua) in New Zealand. These schools are run by approved private organisations instead of the government, but receive government funding. The bill sets up a board to approve and oversee them, allows existing state schools to convert into charter schools, and lets charter schools hire staff without full teaching qualifications. It also removes a requirement for new early childhood centres to get government approval before opening, and gives the government power to make rules about schools recording student attendance.
What this affects
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The bill creates a new type of school called charter schools, run by approved private organisations using government funding, and removes the need for new early childhood centres to get government permission before opening.
provide a legislative framework for charter schools/kura hourua to operate, as a new type of school in addition to State and private schools, and to allow for the conversion of State schools to charter schools
remove the Act's requirement that anyone wanting to operate new licensed early childhood education (ECE) services must first receive 'network approval' from the Minister
enable the Secretary for Education to make rules for State schools about collecting, recording, and providing attendance data
The Authorisation Board may approve a sponsor to operate a charter school if satisfied that the proposed sponsor and every governing member of the proposed sponsor are fit and proper persons
In the case of charter schools, a sponsor could employ a person with a LAT even if the person's skills are not in short supply and are not specialist skills
Progress through Parliament
Have your say
Submissions open once a bill reaches the select committee stage. In the meantime, you can write to your local MP about it.
Write to your MPBill text sourced from legislation.govt.nz (Parliamentary Counsel Office). Arapono’s summary and breakdown are drafted with AI grounded in that official text and reviewed by an Arapono editor for accuracy and neutrality before publishing. Arapono is non-partisan and takes no position on this bill.