Information for schools about teacher aide funding

The Ministry of Education contributes to teacher aide funding for students verified in several learning support programmes. Learn more about this funding.

Level of compliance Main audience Other

Inform

  • Boards
  • Principals and Tumuaki
  • Teachers and Kaiako
  • Learning Support Staff

How we allocate teacher aide funding

We have a limited pool of funding for teacher aide support. It is allocated based on the information provided by you and our staff.

We may adjust the funding if:

  • the teacher aide start date changes
  • we all agree that support for a student needs to be renegotiated.

The funding is allocated to students receiving support through:

  • Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS)
  • School High Health Needs Fund (SHHNF)
  • in-class support
  • behaviour services
  • communication services.

Funding is allocated according to the identified support needs of the student.

Each Ministry of Education region is a fund holder and must use funding as intended. Funding is allocated as identified in the collaborative process between school, family and Ministry of Education staff.

When we pay teacher aide resource funding

Funding for teacher aides is paid into your school bank account in the fourth week of each school term.

All payments are GST inclusive and we base these on:

School type Notional hourly rate (GST inclusive)
U3+ $23.00 
U1 and U2 $23.78

We’ll confirm payment into your account by email and provide a tax invoice for your records.

Funding during the school year

We fund:

School type Term 1 Term 2 Term 3 Term 4 Total weeks
Primary and intermediate 10 weeks 10 weeks 10 weeks 9 weeks 39
Secondary and composite 9 weeks 10 weeks 10 weeks 9 weeks 38

Secondary students verified through the ORS should still attend school at exam time.

Consumables grant for students in ORS

If you have ORS students, we will include a quarterly instalment of the annual consumables grant at the same time we pay your teacher aide resource funding.

For each student verified as: Annual grant (GST inclusive)
Very high needs $561.20
High needs $280.56
On school high health needs fund Does not receive the consumables grant

Reviewing your resource allocation

Informal review

An informal review is when a school, parents or whānau make a verbal request for clarification or raise a concern with us. These concerns are usually to do with the level and/or type of support that’s been allocated.

A Ministry service or fund manager usually leads the review that follows this process.

  • Face-to-face and/or phone discussions between the Ministry and school or parents or whānau.
  • We review the allocation of the resource for this student and keep notes of the outcome.
  • The informal review may become a formal review on school and/or parent or whānau written request.

Formal review

You can request a formal review at any time. You can also request a formal review if you are not satisfied with the outcome of an informal review.

The process for the formal review is as follows.

  • You need to write to us requesting a formal review and include the reasons for the request.
  • We confirm receipt of your request within 10 working days.
  • We review current information on the student or child concerned. 
  • If any further information is required, we ask you to supply this.
  • The review occurs within 10 working days of receipt of this additional information or sooner if no additional information is needed. 
  • The formal review process may occur internally or externally according to the agreed regional processes. It may be also be managed between managers of learning support. 
  • We keep formal notes of verbal and/or written submissions made together with any subsequent decisions and their rationale.
  • We inform everyone concerned of the outcome of the review. 
  • Once we have made the decision, we inform you, in writing, within 10 working days.

What happens when a verified student enrols or leaves your school

Support needs to go to the right school.

If an ORS or SHHNF student ... Then ...

Enrols or leaves your school

  • make sure you update ENROL, and
  • let us know if there are any other changes that may affect this resource such as changes in circumstances for the student or the teacher aide.

Leaves your school

we can continue teacher aide funding for:

  • 2 weeks, or
  • as negotiated and confirmed with the learning support or fund manager.

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