used the OIA process<\/a> to reveal shortcomings in school child protection policies and highlight issues at his own children\u2019s primary school in northwest Auckland. <\/p>\nHe told the Herald exempting schools from the OIA and open governance regime would \u201craise significant concerns\u201d and undermine democratic principles.<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Education says transparency and accountability are important parts of publicly funded education, but acknowledged the difficulties schools face in dealing with such requests. <\/p>\n
Anaru told the Herald the union hoped to initiate a full review of the problem. <\/p>\n
\u201cUnlike government departments, schools do not have in-house legal counsel, dedicated compliance staff, or any funded resourcing to manage what has become a growing administrative obligation. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen a principal receives an OIA request, it is typically the principal themselves \u2013 or a small number of senior staff \u2013 who must locate, review, assess, and respond within the statutory timeframe, all while continuing to lead their school.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Spanz]()
Spanz president Louise Anaru (right) is fighting for a review of the OIA regime as schools struggle to cope with the burden of requests for information. Photo \/ Focal Point<\/p>\n
If it was not possible to exempt schools entirely from the OIA regime, Anaru said the union wanted to reduce the OIA charging threshold, create a dedicated education ombudsman and a dedicated ministry team to support schools with compliance. <\/p>\n
In the letter penned to UoA, Anaru wrote that Cunliffe\u2019s OIA highlighted the \u201csignificant administrative burden\u201d imposed on schools, in this case for a \u201csingle piece of student coursework\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe OIA is a transparency mechanism, not a tool for building litigation portfolios.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the time taken to respond to the request was time stolen from the young people schools were educating, and as such, should not be considered a \u201ctrivial\u201d matter. <\/p>\n
\u201cA number of our members have sought legal advice at their own cost in order to respond appropriately. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor a sector already under severe resourcing pressure, this is a poor use of scarce resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spanz was now discussing the matter with legal counsel and had sought other guidance to support schools and understand the \u201cquantum of the burden and to develop practical solutions for reform\u201d. <\/p>\n
Cunliffe\u2019s latest OIA sought information on policies and procedures regarding trustees\u2019 use of personal devices and accounts for board business.<\/p>\n
Anaru\u2019s letter highlighted a \u201cpattern of behaviour\u201d, noting Cunliffe\u2019s previous \u201cwell-documented history of adversarial engagement with the school sector\u201d. <\/p>\n
In 2018, Cunliffe uncovered what he said was a nationwide failure by schools to properly protect children, after discovering his own child\u2019s school lacked a required child protection policy. <\/p>\n
After extending the investigation to other schools, OIA responses revealed patchy compliance with the Vulnerable Children Act. <\/p>\n
![\"Regan]()
Regan Cunliffe with his wife, Rachel. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Speaking to the Herald, Cunliffe said he consulted with the Ombudsman before sending his school trustees requests in February. <\/p>\n
He strongly opposed any legislative attempts to exempt schools from open government laws, arguing such moves would undermine democratic principles.<\/p>\n
If responding to OIA requests was burdensome, it pointed to broader issues around school governance, Cunliffe argued. <\/p>\n
The UoA has been approached for comment. <\/p>\n
The NZ School Boards Association has written to the country\u2019s schools advising them to check inboxes for Cunliffe\u2019s February OIA request and respond within 20 working days. <\/p>\n
Ministry of Education deputy secretary of policy, Andy Jackson, said schools were self-governing Crown entities. They were responsible for responding to formal requests for information they held, reflecting their accountability to communities and the public interest in transparency.<\/p>\n
He said any shift in responsibility would require legislative change. While the ministry could not advise boards on OIA responses, support was available through the School Boards Association or Ombudsman.<\/p>\n
Rachel Maher is an investigative reporter covering Auckland issues and education. She started at the Herald as a breaking news journalist in 2022, before joining the Auckland team this year. <\/p>\n
Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She wrote that Cunliffe\u2019s request was not a simple exercise to establish how a particular school managed its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[202188,104554,4619,1665,74,51,2852,84,148078,71,15415,6712,661,27612,11692,111,43,139,69,5908,202189,14726,15400,9090,45822,6649,40249,13743,13672,9631,202190,61,4483],"class_list":{"0":"post-390891","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-202188","9":"tag-104554","10":"tag-act","11":"tag-advice","12":"tag-after","13":"tag-auckland","14":"tag-burden","15":"tag-education","16":"tag-exempt","17":"tag-from","18":"tag-information","19":"tag-legal","20":"tag-major","21":"tag-mass","22":"tag-nearly","23":"tag-new-zealand","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-newzealand","26":"tag-nz","27":"tag-official","28":"tag-onerous","29":"tag-principals","30":"tag-push","31":"tag-records","32":"tag-request","33":"tag-schools","34":"tag-seeking","35":"tag-sent","36":"tag-state","37":"tag-student","38":"tag-systemwide","39":"tag-to","40":"tag-union"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}