Homeschool records and reporting in New Zealand

Under section 38 of the Education and Training Act 2020, the Ministry of Education grants an exemption if it is satisfied your child will be taught at least as regularly and as well as in a registered school. The certificate stays valid until your child turns 16 or enrols in a registered school, unless it is revoked.

There is currently no annual report or routine inspection. A 2026 Ministry regulatory impact statement noted that exemptions are not automatically reviewed and that home educators are not required to provide progress or achievement data to the Ministry.

Your exemption application did, however, describe how you would monitor progress and what records you would keep. It makes sense to follow through on that plan.

Families with a current exemption can receive the Home Education Supervision Allowance. It is paid in two instalments: late June for January to June, and late November for July to December. Payments are made in arrears.

Before each payment you must complete and return a statutory declaration form confirming you are still home educating. The Ministry's procedures manual says the letter and declaration are sent out in March and August, and the allowance is not paid if the declaration is not returned.

The allowance can continue until the end of the year in which your child turns 19, as long as you are still home educating and return each declaration. Rates are set per child and change from time to time, so check the Ministry's allowance page for current amounts.

• Tip. Keep a copy of each signed declaration with your records, and make sure the Ministry has your current postal and email address.

The Ministry says reviews of home education programmes do not happen routinely. It may ask ERO to review a programme if it has concerns about whether the exemption's requirements are being met.

Reviews are uncommon. The Ministry's 2026 regulatory impact statement reported that ERO completed 10 home education reviews in 2025, out of about 6,700 home educating families.

If a review does happen, ERO considers whether your child is being taught at least as regularly and as well as in a registered school. Clear plans, a learning log and dated work samples are the easiest way to show that.

In May 2026 the Government proposed adding home education changes to the Education and Training (System Reform) Amendment Bill. Families would have had to meet requirements set in regulations to keep their exemption, alongside more targeted ERO reviews. The Ministry's regulatory impact statement set out the reasons, including concerns raised by ERO about some reviewed programmes.

After feedback from home educators, MPs and others, the Government removed the home education proposal from the bill later in May and said it would pause work on the regulations. The Minister said the issue was more complicated than first thought and that the Government would consider home education provisions in future legislation.

The rest of the bill passed, and the Ministry says the Amendment Act came into force on 6 July 2026. At the time of writing, the home education rules were unchanged. Keep an eye on the Ministry's home education pages for any future consultation.

The Ministry's application guidance encourages goals specific enough to measure progress against, and records that are written or digital rather than relying on memory. These five records cover most needs:

• Learning plan. Your exemption application, plus a short plan each year with goals for each learning area.
• Weekly log. A few dot points per week on what you covered. A simple table with learning areas down the side works well.
• Work samples. A handful of dated pieces each term, especially writing and maths, with a short note on what each shows. Pick samples that show change over time.
• Photos and short videos. For learning that does not produce paperwork, such as experiments, trips, building, sport, kapa haka, art and music. Add a date and a caption.
• Reading log. Titles, dates and a word or two about each book, including read-alouds and audiobooks.

No one requires a yearly report, but writing one for yourself takes an hour or two and is very useful. It gives you a ready answer if ERO, a school or a tertiary provider asks about your child's learning. For each child, cover:

• Where they started. A sentence or two per learning area.
• What you did. Main topics, resources and activities, drawn from your log.
• What changed. Specific progress, pointing to dated work samples.
• Wellbeing and the wider picture. Friendships, groups, physical activity and interests.
• Next goals. Two or three for the coming year, checked against the goals in your plan.

• One folder per child per year. Subfolders for the plan, log, work samples, photos, summaries and allowance declarations.
• Scan or photograph as you go. Name files with the date first (for example 2026-03-14 maths fractions) so they sort in order.
• Back up. Keep one copy in cloud storage and one on a separate drive.
• Set a weekly reminder. Ten minutes at the end of each week keeps the job small.
• Keep the important papers long term. Your Certificate of Exemption, correspondence with the Ministry and any review report.

Our free printables include a weekly planner, a daily learning log, a reading log and a work sample record if you prefer paper.