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: December 2025

Indicator

The number of applications for an early leaving exemption increased by 157 in 2024, up from 1,385 in 2023 to 1,542 in 2024. This was accompanied by a subsequent increase in the number of both approved and declined applications.

A total of 1,342 early leaving exemptions were approved, at a rate of 20.4 per 1,000 15-year-old students (see Figure 1). This was an increase of 51 approvals from 2023 (19.9 per 1,000 15-year-old students). This was the highest rate of approvals since 2008.¹

There were 200 applications for an early leaving exemption declined in 2024 (3.0 per 1,000 15-year-old students). Similarly to approvals, this is the highest number which have been declined since 2008, and more than double the number of early leaving exemptions declined in 2023, when 94 were declined (1.5 per 1,000 15-year-olds).

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 who moved on to further education or training was higher in 2024 (90.6%) than in 2023 (84.7%). This includes students who went on to study at polytechnics, universities, or other training providers.

The remaining 9.4% of overall early learning exemptions went into full-time employment. The proportion of students who went on to full-time employment dropped by 5.9 percentage points from 2023.

Figure 1: Rate of applications for early leaving exemptions, by approved and declined, 2002-2024

Early Leaving Exemptions Figure 1

For more information see the Early leaving exemptions indicator report.

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 (2002-2024) [MS Excel 82kB]

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

Age

The number of 15-year-old students (excluding international fee-paying students) enrolled who obtain an early leaver exemption during the school year.

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 ten 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 board.

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 seven 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 three groups of schools formed by collapsing the seven Equity Index Bands to form three groups: Fewer socio-economic barriers, moderate socio-economic barriers and most socio-economic barriers.