Early leaving exemptions
This page provides statistics on 15-year-old students (excluding international fee-paying students) enrolled in school who obtain an early leaving exemption during the school year.
Last updated: September 2026
Indicator
The number of applications for an early leaving exemption decreased by 294 in 2025, down from 1,542 in 2024 to 1,248 in 2025. This was accompanied by decreases in the number of both approved and declined applications.
A total of 1,106 early leaving exemptions were approved, at a rate of 16.4 per 1,000 15-year-old students (see Figure 1). This was a decrease of 236 approvals from 2024 (20.4 per 1,000 15-year-old students).
There were 142 applications for an early leaving exemption declined in 2025 (2.1 per 1,000 15-year-old students).
Figure 1: Rate of applications for early leaving exemptions, by approved and declined, 2002-20251
Percentage of applications approved
The percentage of early leaving exemption applications being approved has remained reasonably consistent since 2015. 2025 saw an increase to 88.6% from 87.0% in 2024 (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: Percentage of applications for early leaving exemptions which were approved
Post-school destinations
Applications are approved on the basis that students are moving into further education or training, or full-time employment. The proportion of students with an early leaving exemption approved with the reason of further education or training was lower in 2025 (90.1%) than in 2024 (90.6%). This includes students whose exemption was approved to study at polytechnics, universities, or other training providers.
The remaining 9.9% of overall early leaving exemptions were approved with the reason of employment. The proportion of students whose exemption was approved for full-time employment increased by 0.5 percentage points from 2024.
Figure 3: Post-school destinations of students granted early leaving exemptions (2002-2025)
Early leaving exemption rates by ethnic group
In 2025, 15-year-old ākonga Māori had the highest rate of early leaving exemptions, at 39.7 (per 1,000 15-year-old students). This was 2.3 times the national rate. The rate of early leaving exemptions (per 1,000 15-year-old students) for other ethnicities was 11.6 for Pacific students, 15.7 for European/Pākehā students, and 1.5 for Asian students.
Figure 4: Early leaving exemption rates per 1,000 15-year-old students by ethnic group, 2018-2025
Between 2024 and 2025, ākonga Māori students had the largest decrease in early leaving exemptions, with a decrease of 8.2 (per 1,000 15-year-old students). This was followed by Pacific students with a decrease of 5.1 (per 1,000 15-year-old students), European/Pākehā students with a decrease of 3.2 (per 1,000 15- year-old students), and for Asian students the rate decreased by 0.02 (per 1,000 15-year-old students).
Early leaving exemption
Enrolment in school is compulsory for all students from the time they turn 6 until they turn 16 years of age. However, parents of 15-year-old students may apply to the Ministry of Education for an exemption from schooling if the student is experiencing learning difficulties due to educational problems or behavioural conduct, is unlikely to benefit from attending any available schools, and if there is a plan for other training or employment for a student to move on to. Parents are required to give details about training programmes or employment that the student would move on to in the event of an early leaving exemption being granted.
Time series
This spreadsheet provides numbers and rates per 1,000 15-year-old students with an approved early leaving exemption for a range of dimensions (such as regional council, socioeconomic barriers, ethnicity) across time in an easy to use format.
- Time series: Early leaving exemptions (2002-2025) [MS Excel 101kB]
The measure
Indicator definition: Early leaving exemptions
Numerator:
Total number of 15-year-old students (excluding international fee-paying students) enrolled who obtain an early leaver exemption during the school year.
(Data source: Ministry of Education: Early Leavers Data Cube)
Denominator:
Total number of 15-year-old students (excluding international fee-paying students) on the roll as of 1 July of each year.
(Data source: Ministry of Education: July roll return)
Definitions and data dimensions
Ethnic group
The Ministry uses Statistics New Zealand's methodology for reporting of ethnicity: ethnicity is any ethnic group or groups that people identify with or feel they belong to. Ethnicity is a measure of cultural affiliation, rather than race, ancestry, nationality, or citizenship.
This means up to 3 different ethnic groups can be recorded for each student. A student is counted in each ethnic group they belong to and once in "Total” Ethnic Group.
Gender
The gender of the students, as recorded in the schools roll return (or ENROL if there is no roll return data for a student).
Education region
These are twelve administrative regions created by the Ministry of Education and aligned with the Ministry's 10 local offices. Students are included in the education area of the last school they were enrolled with. In 2023 the Auckland region was split into 3 education areas, Tāmaki Herenga Tāngata (north and west Auckland), Tāmaki Herenga Manawa (central and east Auckland) and Tāmaki Herenga Waka (south and southwest Auckland).
Regional council
The regional council area the school of the student is located in. Regional council boundaries are defined by Statistics New Zealand.
Territorial authority
The territorial authority area that each student’s school is located in. Territorial authority boundaries are defined by Statistics New Zealand. The Auckland Territorial Authority is further broken down into local boards.
Equity Index Band
The Equity Index Bands are an indicator of the relative degree of socio-economic barriers to educational achievement faced by students at the schools in each band and is used as a tool for analysing and reporting on socio-economic trends in education data. Equity Index Bands are derived from the Equity Index used for school funding. There are 7 Equity Index Bands each containing a similar number of schools. In order of increasing socio-economic barriers the bands are named: “Fewest”, “Few”, “Below Average”, “Average”, “Above Average”, “Many” and “Most”.
The school equity index has been in use since 2023. For 2019 to 2023 the Equity Index Bands are derived from the 2023 Equity index numbers in order to provide a time series.
More information on the Equity Index Bands and Groups can be found here.
Equity Index Group
There are 3 groups of schools formed by collapsing the 7 Equity Index Bands to form 3 groups: Fewer socio-economic barriers, moderate socio-economic barriers and most socio-economic barriers.
More information on the Equity Index Bands and Groups can be found here.
Footnotes
- In May 2007, the Ministry of Education started reducing the number of approved ELX by:
- Sticking more closely to ‘the letter of the law’ by tying the exemption assessment process more directly to the wording of the Act, which sets a very high threshold for early leaving eligibility.
- Ensuring direct contact between parents and Ministry staff at the first stage of the early leaving process to actively discourage early leaving and to support parents to find ways of keeping their children engaged in learning.
- Encouraging alternatives by asking schools to make greater use of other parts of the Act that provide flexible alternatives to early leaving. Alternatives such as work and community learning options while staying enrolled in school were actively encouraged.