You must be enrolled at a registered school at all times between your 6th birthday and your 16th birthday. A registered school can include state schools, integrated schools and Kura Kaupapa Maori, as well as most private schools.

However, if you are 15, the Ministry of Education may agree that you would benefit more from leaving school than from staying at school (or finding a new school). In this case, you can be granted an “exemption” from schooling so you can leave early (to find out more, contact the Ministry of Education, see “More Information - School”).

You need an exemption to legally get a job or go on a course at that age. Usually, the Ministry only grants an exemption where your school also thinks that you would benefit from this. If your school won’t agree to an exemption, you may still be able to get one [authority: s26 Education Act 1989]. Call YouthLaw for help with this (see “More Information - School”).

You also don’t have to attend school if you are educated by one of the following means:

1. Home Schooling and Correspondence

There are two ways that you can be taught without going to the schools that most other people go to:

• Your carers can apply to the Ministry of Education for an exemption for “home schooling” so that they can teach you at home. Your carers must satisfy the MOE that you will be taught as well and as often as you would be if you went to a mainstream school every day. Your carers have to develop your own education programme. The Education Review Office (ERO) has the power to review your carer’s teaching and visit your home and inspect your work.
• If you live too far away from a suitable school, or have been unable to enrol at a mainstream school for other reasons (for example, because you are excluded at the moment) you may enrol in the Correspondence School. You will do your school work at home and receive it through the mail. If you are enrolled in Correspondence School then you don’t have to attend a mainstream school.

2. Alternative Education

If you are between 14 and 16, have been out of school for two terms or more, and know that you would not fit into a mainstream school, you can apply for enrolment in an Alternative Education Centre.

This means that you go onto the roll of a school, but are actually taught somewhere else, usually in a small group with a few other students. You may do some work by correspondence and some practical work.