Digest No. 1681
Main Provisions
Inspection of private schools
The Bill provides that the frequency of reviews of private schools by the Education Review Office will be on the same basis as reviews of State schools, rather than every 3 years (Part 1, Clause 15 amending Section 53A of the Education Act 1989, substituting subsection (9)).
Police vetting
The Bill provides for new procedures and criteria for obtaining Police vets of those who will have unsupervised access to students at schools. The Bill also provides a new definition, for "unsupervised access to children" and substituted definitions for "playgroup" and "hospital-based education and care service" (Part 1, Clause 21, substituting Sections 78C to 78CD of the Education Act 1989; Clause 69, amending Section 309 of the Act; Clause 70 substituting Sections 319D to 319FB for sections 319D to 319F of the Act)
Limited statutory manager or commissioner may be a corporate body
The Bill provides that a body corporate or corporation sole may be appointed as a limited statutory manager or commissioner (Part 1, Clauses 22-26, amending Sections 78M-78Q of the Education Act 1989).
Combined boards
The Bill provides that the Minister of Education may establish a combined board for two or more newly established schools (Part 1, Clause 32, inserting New Section 110A into the Education Act 1989).
Information matching
The Bill provides for information matching between the New Zealand Teachers Council and the Ministry to identify the registration status of people employed in teaching positions, and who they are employed by, and to identify their entitlement and eligibility for allowances available on the basis of registration (Part 1, Clause 36 inserting New Section 128A into the Education Act 1989).
Duty to provide information in respect of student allowances
The Bill provides for an extended range of persons who are not recipients of statutory allowances or loans who have duties to provide information to the Secretary for Education in relation to student allowances. An example is persons acting in their official capacities as public servants (Part 1, Clause 65, amending Section 307).
Validations
"Clause 77 [of the Bill] provides for the validity of the Authority's actions to be determined as if section 246, and the other provisions of Part 20, had referred to relevant schools, and not to secondary schools, at all material times"
.
"Clause 78 provides that actions done under the Education Act 1989 or the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act 1975 are not invalid solely because of a defect or error in the processes relating to a change of proprietor of an integrated school"
(Part 2, Clauses 77 and 78).
Privacy Act 1993
The Bill amends the Privacy Act 1993 to add the New Zealand Teachers Council to the list of specified agencies in Section 97 of that Act and makes some other amendments. These amendments are consequential upon the information matching provisions referred to above (Part 2, Clauses 79 and 80, amending Section 97 and Schedule 3 of the Privacy Act 1993).
