This Supplementary Order Paper amends the Education (Update) Amendment Bill (the Bill) to make a number of further amendments to the Education Act 1989 (the Act). The main objectives of these amendments are to prohibit seclusion and to regulate the use of physical restraint.

To achieve these objectives, new clause 96A inserts new sections 139AB to 139AE. The proposed new sections—

• prohibit seclusion of a student or child enrolled at or attending a registered school or early childhood service by a teacher or any other person employed or contracted by, or volunteering for, a registered school or early childhood service; and

• define seclusion, in relation to a student or child, as placing the student or child involuntarily alone in a room from which he or she cannot freely exit or from which the student or child believes that he or she cannot freely exit; and

• prohibit the use of physical restraint on a student by a teacher or authorised staff member except in situations where the teacher or staff member reasonably believes that the safety of the student or of any other person is at serious and imminent risk and the physical restraint is reasonable in the circumstances; and

• define physical restraint, in relation to a student, as being the use of physical force to prevent, restrict, or subdue the movement of the student’s body or part of the student’s body; and

• require the Secretary to make rules prescribing the practice and procedure to be followed by boards, principals, teachers, and authorised staff members in relation to physical restraint; and

• require the Secretary to issue guidelines on the use of physical restraint in state schools and partnership schools kura hourua.

The Supplementary Order Paper also inserts new clause 116A in the Bill, which amends section 158U of the Act. The amendments provide that new sections 139AC to 139AE (relating to physical restraint) apply to partnership schools kura hourua and modify the meaning of certain terms in those provisions in relation to their application to partnership schools kura hourua.

New clause 128A is inserted into the Bill by the Supplementary Order Paper to amend section 317 of the Act. The amendment expands the scope of the empowering provision for regulations relating to the licensing of early childhood services to include practices in relation to behaviour management and limits on the use of physical restraint. Likewise, new clause 128B amends section 319 of the Act to include behaviour management practices and limits on physical restraint among the subjects on which regulations may be made relating to the certification of playgroups.