October Monthly Updates

Government Liaison Report 
By Cynthia Hancox, Government Liaison

Problematic questions from Regional Ministry staff:

There have been significant staff changes and restructures around the country within the Ministry, which means that there are also many staff who are new to processing exemption applications. I have been told by some that they did not receive any training or hand over in how to do this properly. Unsurprisingly, the result is that a number of issues have arisen.

Regardless of whether it’s down to new staff members or not, it’s important that families know what is appropriate and inappropriate for staff to be asking/expecting of them, and what to do if they strike a problem or are unsure.

When applying for an exemption, it is often very tempting to just “give them what they want” in order to get an exemption. However, doing so has some downsides – particularly:

 Families may “misrepresent” their actual intentions for their child’s learning programme. This could cause problems in the future if a review is conducted (when the “approved learning programme” in the exemption application is used as a reference point). It also removes the assurance that the actual planned programme is deemed suitable.

 Just giving them what they want (when the demands are unreasonable) does nothing to teach Ministry staff what home education really looks like, or what is appropriate and what is not – which tends to lead to “normalisation” of these or other increasing demands upon subsequent applications. This does both yourself and other families/future home educators a disservice.

Here are some of the most common recent and repeated examples of Ministry “over-step”:

Regularity: in asking for more detail in regard to regularity, some staff will state in various ways that the expectation for school is “an hour per day each of reading, writing and math” and that home educators must also do that. This is incorrect. The policy applies to schools, not to home educators. Staff who insist that it does are not only wrong, but they are also basing their judgment of “as regularly as” on a false paradigm.

While it IS important to demonstrate how YOUR intended learning programme will be carried out with suitable regularity for all relevant learning areas, you do not have to model this upon school hours or school expectations. You are not required to have or follow a timetable similar to schools. You do need to give sufficient detail to demonstrate a suitable commitment to regularity.

Curriculum: some staff members seem to think that families need to use specific curriculum resources to teach core subjects – eg an English workbook or a math textbook or whatever. That is NOT required. You do need to outline in sufficient detail what will be taught and how, and show that you have suitable resources to support this (whatever that looks like), but it is not a requirement to use curriculum as such.

Likewise, there is no requirement to align with the NZ curriculum in any way.

Phone calls/meeting: Some regional offices are telling families they must have a phone call (or meeting) with staff as part of the application process. This is NOT required. Certainly, in some regions, staff are only carrying out the orders of newer managers who think this “should” be required – in others individual staff members are making up their own rules. And it is also true that in many cases such a phone call is “no big deal.” However, and this is important – there are significant issues with this practice, including:

 Staff members may say things over the phone they never would in writing, which means there’s no proof to follow up on if there is an issue. I get fairly regular reports of staff members saying some quite inappropriate or intimidating things to families. Yes, these are the exception, not the rule, but by refusing to be put in that position to start with, home educators can collectively protect ourselves.

 Families should never be “put on the spot” by being asked questions over the phone about their application – all questions should be in writing with a 4-week period allowed to provide additional information. Most staff know and abide by this, but some do not.

 The law requires an application, not an interview, and it requires the Ministry to process all valid applications. For any regional staff to state or imply that they cannot/will not process an application without a phone call or meeting is inappropriate.

 The Ministry’s own Service Standards clearly state that families should be asked how they would prefer to be communicated with if additional information is needed.

While it is your right to choose how you prefer to communicate with the Ministry, and if you’re comfortable talking to them over the phone, that’s ok, our recommendation is to refuse routine requests for phone calls or meetings in regard to applications simply because they should not be happening, and things can (and have in the past) go pear-shaped when they do.

There is an exception: in some rare, instances, a meeting with Ministry staff (in person or online) may be appropriate and necessary to complete an exemption application process. However, this should only be considered after written communication asking for additional information (if needed) is responded to and/or staff have explained why they want to meet in sufficient detail.

Reviews: The law allows the Ministry of Education to request a review of a child’s home education programme. However, there are specific steps to this, and specific constraints. Under current government policy, reviews only happen on a “complaint’s basis.” The Ministry’s role is as follows:

 Receive and make note of the “complaint” or “expression of concern.”

 Conduct “initial investigations” – which means they should ask sensible questions, if possible, of the complainant to determine whether there is reasonable knowledge of the child and their learning (and the “complaint” is not just ignorant or nefarious), and that they should inform the family of the concerns raised and invite their comment. Also provide the family with a copy of the complaint upon request.

 If the child has special education needs that may not have been known or noted in the exemption application, then consider what additional supports may be available/offered.

 Use the gathered information to determine whether an ERO review is necessary. If so, request via the national office. (They may skip straight to this step in cases of sufficiently “serious complaints.”)

 If an ERO review is approved, then inform the family that this will occur.

 After the ERO review is conducted, review the report produced and its conclusion; contact the family to advise they are satisfied, or if not satisfied to invite further comment from the family on what they plan to do to improve things, then decide whether they can be satisfied in regards to “as regularly and well as” based on the additional information, need to check in with the family in a few months, or should revoke the exemption.

What is important is what is NOT part of the Ministry’s role – they do NOT conduct reviews of home educators themselves. The law does not allow them to; only ERO can do this.

From time to time, I have received evidence of a Ministry staff member contacting a family telling them that they wish to conduct a review of the learning programme, and implying or giving specific requirements for what they want to do/have provided. That is not appropriate. If this happens to you, write back and ask the reason for their “review” and an outline of what the process is. Provide no further information until they respond. And get in touch with our Government Liaison team or other suitable support.

Remember, how you respond to unreasonable questions or demands from the Ministry affects not only you and your family, but those that come after you. We should always be polite when responding to them. Sometimes it is simply staff who don’t yet know better, and a gentle but firm push back can help sort this out. It may be that there are perfectly legitimate reasons they need to ask you for additional information, and that you do need to give them more, just that the specifics of what they have asked are incorrect. It can take experience to identify which is what.

So if you strike any issues, feel free to ask questions on our Facebook page, email govt.liaison@nchenz.org.nz, or check out the information provided on our website.

6 monthly declarations and allowance forms

The forms were due to be returned to the Ministry by October 3 rd , with allowance payments to be made in the week of 24 th -28 th November. If you have not yet returned your forms, it’s not too late; go ahead and do that, though your payments may be somewhat delayed.

If you did not receive or have misplaced your forms, contact Resourcing@education.govt.nz to ask for a new copy; you can also email completed forms back to this email address.

If you have had an exemption issued from 11 th July onwards, then your regional office is responsible for sending you the part period declaration and allowance forms, and it is them you need to contact if you have not received these.

Please note: part period declarations result in pro-rata payment of the six monthly allowance, and will NOT be added to subsequent declarations and forms.

Exemption applications for 5-year-olds

The Ministry of Education’s national office has confirmed that the policy allowing exemption applications to be submitted and processed for 5-year-olds is unchanged, and have reminded regional staff of this. If you submit an application for a 5yo, then your regional office should process this on the same basis as any other application and not tell you it will be delayed until closer to their 6 th birthday or ask you to resubmit later. The exception is that during busy periods they may give a 5 yo’s application a lower priority than more urgent ones, so it may take a bit longer.

Regardless, an exemption will only come into effect either from the child’s 6 th birthday or once the exemption has been granted, whichever is the later.