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Disrupt the Class, Leave the Class
Most students behave well and want to learn. Serious or persistent disruption can take over a lesson, leaving the teacher to manage one student while everyone else waits.
The Education Review Office found in 2024 that around half of teachers deal with disruption in every lesson. Forty-seven per cent lose 40 to 50 minutes or more each day responding to challenging behaviour. In the 2022 PISA results, New Zealand had the worst behavioural climate in maths classes in the OECD. Half of teachers told ERO that behaviour had a large impact on whether they intended to remain in teaching.
ACT would create a quick response that sits below formal stand-down and suspension processes. A teacher could direct a seriously or persistently disruptive student to leave and go to a staffed, supervised space. A refusal would be escalated to a dean or senior leader. If the student refused again after that escalation, staff could use reasonable force to remove them.
Removed students would stay under supervision in a pastoral office, dean's room or learning support room. Empty or lockable rooms could not be used. Corporal punishment would remain illegal. Any physical intervention would have to be reasonable, proportionate and authorised by law.
ACT will:
Amend the Education and Training Act 2020 to give classroom teachers an explicit legal power to direct a student to leave for serious or persistent disruption and report to a staffed, supervised space.
Require a refusal to be escalated to a dean or senior leader. If the student refuses a second lawful direction after that escalation, staff may use reasonable force to remove them.
Clarify section 99 of the Act so staff are protected when they use reasonable and proportionate intervention to prevent harm or the destruction of property.
Require immediate removal followed by a mandatory stand-down or suspension for any assault on a teacher, student or other member of school staff. An assault that crosses the criminal threshold would be referred to Police Youth Aid on the first occurrence.
Require a parent or guardian meeting when behaviour becomes serious or repeated, and when a student refuses a lawful direction to leave. Parents already working with the school in good faith over low-level disruption would not be called to a duplicate meeting.
Escalate cases where a parent does not engage, either to the Ministry of Education or through the Oranga Tamariki and Police Youth Aid pathway. A parent who misses a mandatory meeting without a reasonable excuse could be fined up to $300 for a first offence and up to $3,000 for a later offence.
Allow schools to recover the cost of deliberate property damage from a student's parents as a debt if it is not paid.
In our team's words:
ACT Candidate Paul Henry says:
“Education is the key to a better tomorrow. Somehow, we've allowed disruptive students to steal valuable learning time from their classmates while teachers are denied the authority to stop them. How can we expect teachers to administer world-class education if we are not providing them with world-class support?”
“Most students behave well and want to learn. They should not have their education held hostage by a minority who refuse to respect their teacher or classmates. We should be supporting teachers and education.
“Corporal punishment would remain illegal, and removed students would stay supervised. Any physical intervention must be reasonable, proportionate and backed by law. A teacher's job is to teach. ACT will give them the authority to get on with it.”