Student enrolment
What if a family supplies inaccurate or incorrect information about where they live?
The application address provided must be the student's usual place of residence when the school is open for instruction.
Informing parents
The Ministry of Education advises that parents should be warned of the consequences of attempting to gain unfair priority by giving a false address or making an in-zone living arrangement which they intend to be temporary, for example, by:
- renting accommodation in-zone on a short-term basis
- arranging temporary board in-zone with a relative or family friend
- using the in-zone address of a relative or friend as an address of convenience, with no intention to live there on an ongoing basis.
Reviewing an enrolment
Before enrolment takes place − that is, before attendance begins − if the board has reasonable grounds for believing that the given in-zone address was not a genuine ongoing living arrangement, it may withdraw any offer of a place that may have been made on the basis of the given address.
After attendance, if the school learns that a student is no longer living at the in-zone enrolment address and there are reasonable grounds to believe that a temporary in-zone residence has been used for the purpose of unfairly gaining priority; the board may review the enrolment by sending a letter (review notice) to the parents. The Ministry of Education provides a draft letter template: "When an enrolment is being reviewed because a temporary address or false information may have been provided".
Tools for schools – Ministry of Education website
Unless the parents can give a satisfactory explanation within 10 school days after the date the review notice was sent, the board may annul the enrolment.
Education and Training Act 2020, Schedule 20, sections 12, 13 – Legislation website
Updated: August 2020
