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Introduction
The Ministry of Education’s Early Learning Information (ELI) system collects and stores information on enrolment, attendance and staffing from licensed early childhood services.
Licensed early childhood services, unless specifically exempt, must send complete and accurate information to the ELI system. This includes:
- Children’s National Student Numbers (NSN).
- Up-to-date child enrolment and attendance information.
- The ECE Census (also known as the ECE Return).
- The electronic RS7 Return.
Providing data through the ELI system does not replace the enrolment, attendance and absence records required for funding which are defined in Chapter 6.
There are additional record keeping requirements for services offering 20 Hours ECE. These can be found in Chapter 4.
More information about ELI can be found on this website.
Use of information collected
Enrolment, attendance, and absence records collected by the Ministry may be used to enable the Secretary for Education or the Minister of Education to exercise their powers or carry out their responsibilities under the Education and Training Act 2020, and as permitted by Privacy Principles 10 and 11.
ELI exempt services
The following service types are exempt from providing regular information on enrolments and attendance to the Ministry through ELI:
- Casual Education and Care Service.
- Hospital Based Services.
ELI exemptions will be given to services where the nature of their operations does not suit the regular collection of enrolment or attendance data.
Services operated by the Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust are temporarily exempt from providing regular information on enrolments and attendance to the Ministry through ELI.
Sending information to the ELI system
Licensed early childhood services must send information to the ELI system through ELI Web, or a Ministry-approved commercial student management system (SMS).
Typically, a SMS provides more functionality than ELI Web. ELI Web is a free-of-charge Ministry application designed to collect the required data from licensed early childhood services that do not use a SMS.
