There are two important numbers assigned to home educating families and students which should be known and understood. Here's some info on how to find and use these numbers.

When a family applies for their first home education exemption, the Ministry staff processing the application create a record on their homeschooling database known as RAD. In doing so, the family is assigned a number which is personal to that family only. This number is displayed on the exemption certificate and all subsequent correspondence from the Ministry in respect of home education, such as the six monthly declarations. 

The number will have, currently, 5 digits (older ones had 4), followed by a -1 for the first child exempt, a -2 for the second child and so on. For example, if the Smith family are homeschooling 3 exempt students, their family numbers might be 12345-1, 12345-2 and 12345-3. 

You will seldom need to use this number, but it will come in handy if corresponding with the Ministry about anything to do with your family exemptions. So keep a record of it in a safe place.

Every student in New Zealand has a National Student Number or NSN which is assigned to them from the time they first enrol in an ECE, school, or gain an exemption. This is the number they are linked to on ENROL, the national schools database, as well as on the NZQA framework, Studylink, at tertiary institutes etc. NSNs are 9 digits long and are personal to each individual student rather than family.

If at any time you wish to enrol your child in a program which has credits or funding attached to it, then you will need their NSN number. You will also need it to complete an NZQA registration, which is also needed for earned credits to be recorded on the Framework, and to access those records.

You will also need an NSN to check eligibility for Fees Free via the Fees Free website. 

It is mostly families of older students who need their NSN. Until now, finding out your student's NSN has required contacting the Ministry of Education and requesting it* - an often frustrating process. Last year at our meeting with the Ministry, in my role as Government Liaison for the National Council of Home Educators of NZ (NCHENZ), I requested that student NSNs be made easily accessible by including them with future exemption certificates and also adding them to the six monthly declarations. The Ministry agreed, and as of the current round of declarations (March 2020), these have been added.**

Now on your declarations you should see a line for each student which states:
Family homeschooling number, student's full name, students NSN.
Just one more reason to keep a copy of your declaration and not just shove it back in the post and return it. :-)  

The student's NSN will also be stated on any new exemption certificates issued. An exemption certificate is a legal document, and should be kept in a safe place.**

Below is a made up copy of part of a declaration for a fictious student - the family number is in red and the NSN in blue for clarity. This format is what you should see on declarations from now on.

*Note: if you're reading this at a time when you don't have a declaration handy, and need your student's NSN, you can still ask for it by contacting the regional Ministry office in your area. You are most likely to be successful by contacting the staff member there who processes exemption applications, if you are a home educating family. 

**Note: there is an exception - if you have applied for and been granted an exemption for a 5 year old, which doesn't legally come into effect before they turn 6, and have been sent out a declaration and/or exemption certificate in advance, post dated, then the NSN won't be on it/them as it won't have been generated yet; Ministry staff will have diarised adding your child to ENROL on their 6th birthday, at which point the NSN will be generated, and you will see that on your subsequent declaration. This is because Ministry staff are doing their best working with a sadly outdated and clunky database system, which causes all kinds of frustrations. Procedures in regional offices do vary - some will wait to send out the exemption certificate until the time of the birthday rolls around (in which case it will likely have the NSN on it), others will send them in advance, post dated (so they will not). 

All regional Ministry staff are working from home. They will be able to process exemption applications received via email (ie electronically), but not those that are sent by post, as they cannot access the mail until after the shutdown. 

As doing it this way is new to most of them, they are unsure about whether timeframes for processing will be affected. However I've had a number of reports back from families who have submitted applications during lockdown so far that they have been approved very swiftly. 

Regional staff will contact families to let them know that their application has been approved. At this point some regional offices are saying they will email the exemption certificate to families, others are saying they will have to wait until they are back in the office to access printers and will post them out. Some plan to do both.

This is the wording that the Ministry has added to their website on 2nd April:
"The Covid-19 lockdown has restricted how we process home-school applications and declarations. However, we will do our best to ensure no family who wishes to formally home-school their child, or children, is disadvantaged.
As our staff are having to work from home, local offices will only be able to process emailed applications.
If your application is approved you will receive your certificate of exemption by email.
If you have any queries please contact your local Ministry office."

The April declarations were mailed out before lockdown. Families are starting to receive them now. I have today (Monday 30th) spoken to Resourcing Division and here is the situation and advice:

The lovely staff member I spoke to, who like everyone was taken by surprise by the announcement of impending lockdown, hastily printed off all declarations, took them home with him, and personally stuffed envelopes and sent them out, so families would get them (big ups to Kenneth!)

He advises me that while families can send the declarations back, they have no way of processing them, regardles of whether they are posted or emailed. This is because the system they are working with is complex and antiquated, partly paper based, and significant parts cannot be done remotely. IF the lockdown ends of schedule, they hope to make the payment as intended in the week starting May 18th, but if it is extended, it may be June or so before payments can be made. 

Some families have already contacted the Ministry and emailed their forms. That is fine. HOWEVER, it would be much more helpful if the bulk of forms were posted to the Ministry, so they can work through them systematically as soon as they are able. 

We discussed various aspects, and the following are important recommendations:

1) If you can, please post your declarations back. BEFORE you do this, take a scan or clear picture of it as a back up so that if there are issues later, you can then email that back up copy to them. But if you're one of the efficient ones who already sent it back in without keeping a copy, then don't worry about it; if later it turns out we need to submit electronically then at that time you can ask for a new copy to be emailed to you. 
Note: this time around, for the first time ever, students NSNs are included in the declarations. You are going to want a copy so you have that info for the future too. See THIS for more. 

2) If you have no access to mail services at this time and/or have not received your declaration in a reasonable period of time (say the end of this week), then you can email resourcing@education.govt.nz and ask for a copy to be sent to you electronically. They do have the capacity to send them out by email on request, but not to reprint any at this time. Please give it a bit of time first though - post is likely to be slow currently.

3) If you cannot access postal services to return your declaration, then you can also email the completed return to resourcing@education.govt.nz. But again, only do this if you cannot post, as if we overwhelm their inbox, mistakes are more likely to be made than if they're working through a physical pile of paper in due course.

Further wording the Ministry have added to their website re allowances on 2nd April:
"As stated, the Covid-19 lockdown has restricted how we process applications and declarations.
The date when declarations are due and allowances paid may be subject to change. We will seek to provide further advice over the coming weeks.
If you have any questions you can contact resourcing support at: resourcing@education.govt.nz"

And for anyone looking for the postal address, it's:
Resourcing Division
Ministry of Education
PO Box 1666
​Wellington 6140

During these difficult and unprecedented times everyone is doing the best that they can, but disruptions are unavoidable. Let's be patient and kind to ourselves and each other. 

• Exemption applications can still be sent into regional Ministry offices, but should be emailed rather than posted, as only emailed applications can be processed at this time. ​
• Declarations can be signed and posted back in - they will be processed once lockdown ends, though if it is extended payment dates may be delayed. Emailing declarations will not speed up processing, and too many emailed declarations could cause issues and actually slow things down. Where needed, though, emailing is an option - see above for details.

​I phoned Resourcing today; the same diligent staff member who made sure declarations were sent out has had the boxes of received declarations delivered to his home, and is working on processing them. He will have another delivery in the next few days, to ensure that all declarations received by the cut-off date (last Friday, May 1st) are also processed. He has been working with the payments team and they believe they have come up with a way to ensure that payments can be processed remotely. At this time, therefore, they hope that all payments related to declarations received on time will be made on schedule, in the week of 18-22nd May. Note that this is an untested way of doing this, so they cannot yet guarantee success, but it is their intention to make it work.

Any declarations which were not received by the Ministry by the deadline will still be processed, but will have to wait until staff are able to return to the office; a date which is as yet unknown.

Today Resourcing confirmed that payments are being processed "as we speak" and everyone should have them by the end of the week. All declarations recieved by post or email by the May 1st cut off have been processed for payment.

Those who sent declarations in late can expect that they will be paid on a later cycle, as is usually the case. (The Ministry normally has payment cycles roughly every two weeks)

If you have not yet received a declaration, contact Resourcing at the email address above and ask for one to be emailed to you. 

If you think you've returned a declaration but are worried it has not been received or processed, you can call the Ministry to check. I suggest waiting to see if you get the payment this week first, so as to limit calls to just those who have not.

Let's start by defining what it means to be a homeschooler, also known as a "home educator." Parents in NZ who want to homeschool their children are required to apply for and gain an exemption from the law that says that all children age 6-16 are required to be enrolled in and attend (when it's open) a registered school. 

Homeschooling implies these things have occurred:

• Parental choice
• Forethought and planning
• Accessing suitable resources
• Submitting an exemption application, which requires outlining in some detail a complete plan for the first year of your child's home education
• Receiving a certificate of exemption from the Ministry of Education

For hundreds of thousands of parents around the country, they suddenly have their children at home, with the expectation that they will need to learn at home for the duration. However, as none of the above apply, they are not truly required to be homeschoolers, though of course we understand they may feel that way!

Along with closing all of the schools, the Ministry of Education announced that the school holidays would be brought forward, so that instead of running from April 14-24, they are now officially from March 28-April 14th. This is to buy the Ministry and schools some time to come up with a plan and access to resources for children to use at home. 

For affected families, I would suggest that, while they will be different from normal, that you do treat this time as school holidays. Put aside any pressure you are feeling to be your children's "teacher" and enjoy being their parents! Read stories, play games, build towers, make forts under the table with blankets, observe bugs in the backyard, watch movies and documentaries, have "tea time" with tea and some baking and talk about life or read poems or take turns telling stories, cook together in the kitchen or spend some time on your favourite (or new) crafts or hobbies, write letters to family and so on. (Pro tip - this is what a good chunk of actual "homeschooling"  looks like anyway :-)). 

By the end of the school holiday time, the Ministry and schools should have things in place so your children will be provided with resources and access to things to continue their regular (or modified) program of learning at home. Yes, you'll need to supervise them, and yes you'll need to support them as required. But the burden of planning and teaching and marking and putting together resources etc will not rest substantially with you. 

Even so, when things are available, keep in mind that these are not normal times. Your children may be anxious about all that is going on, but even if not, they will not be in their normal routines. Be kind and be patient, with them and yourselves. Above all, do not feel pressured to replicate the classroom at home. Children learning at home with a parent do not need 6 hours of "school" as they have normally.

When lessons become available, certainly make a plan to allocate regular time to them. How long they take will depend in part on how well your children are able to focus on them, but as a rule of thumb from the homeschooling world, children ages 5-7 only need about a hour of focussed academics per day. This will slowly increase with age to around 2-3 hours for 10-12 year olds. Highschoolers will usually have a fuller program - though this depends on the style of what they are doing. 3 hours is usually still plenty for Years 9-10 unless doing a particularly academic program, with more for students doing NCEA etc.

In these circumstances though, nothing is normal. If each day you spend a bit of time on the 3Rs (reading, writing, arithmatic), and some time in discussion or research about topics of interest, and some time doing something hands-on or practical (science experiments, cooking, gardening, sewing, construction, art, baby care, animal care, chores etc etc), then consider it a day well spent! Children are wired to learn and will do so in pretty much any situation. This is not the time to worry over much about achievement standards, how many pages got done etc. 

Remember, what your children need most at this time, is a parent. One who makes them feel loved and secure. Not a teacher who is too frazzled to be their parent!

Here's a suggested timetable that the Ministry has sent out to all (primary?) schools, intended to be shared with parents. I share it here because it demonstrates that the Ministry recognises that well-being is a high priority right now, rather than copious amounts of "schoolwork." There is no obligation for anyone to follow this, but it presents an idea. Regardless, having some kind of sensible routine in your home is a good idea, so the children know what to expect. A framework, if you will, for your days.

And see the quote from one school principal which I have pasted in at the end of this post below.

For some parents, there will be two main reasons why they will not want to send their children back to school when the lockdown is lifted:

1. Their children (or other family members) are medically vulnerable, and they consider the risk of exposing them to COVID-19 is too high. 
2. They've always wanted to homeschool (or have seen how great it is to have the kids learning at home), and this situation has given them the nudge they needed to make it "official" 

So what next?
For parents whose children are vulnerable, you have basically two choices - either to work with the school and/or get a medical certificate to keep your children home for the duration, in which case they will remain enrolled in the school, and the school is expected to faciliate their learning by sending work home etc, OR take the plunge and become "real homeschoolers." 

For parents who do decide to home educate their children going forward, then there are steps you need to follow. These include:

• Consider what you want your children's program of learning to look like and what, if any, specific resources you will use for the first year. There is a lot of good info about this, as well as resource ideas, at www.nchenz.org.nz. You will need to be able to outline this program in your application.
• Read the Ministry's website for some general information, and download the application forms HERE
• Complete and submit the application to the Ministry; it will take 4-6 weeks for them to process the application and approve the exemption (it can take longer if more information is required).

I have a guide to exemptions that will walk you through the requirements, and includes a template you can use to write your own application instead of the Ministry's forms if you wish. See my Homeschooling page for the guide and other ways I can support you. 

There are a number of Facebook pages for homeschooling families. Most are focussed on those who are officially homeschooling, but some welcome those who have questions. On Facebook, search for "homeschooling" or "home education"  to find some of these groups (you may want to add "nz" to the search to limit results). Some experienced home educators have also set up new FB groups for families who are "suddenly homeschooling" due to the lockdown. Search terms: "unexpectedly homeschooling" and "suddenly homeschooling.

There are also a lot of producers of online educational resources who are making access free due to the COVID-10 situation. Type "Free educational resources COVID 19" into google and you've find several postings with lists and links. I'm not including a specific link as more and updated lists are appearing all the time.

Take a moment and just breathe. I know we all, as parents, feel deeply our love for our children and the desire to ensure their learning is not disrupted. Be assured that a short break during this time will not make them "fall behind" and that even if this disruption continues for some time, you will have options and resources etc. Focus right now on loving them and having some fun with them. Maybe one day they'll look back at this time as a highlight of their childhood because of the time they got to spend with their parent/s. In the coming weeks there will be time enough to settle into new routines or access necessary resources to continue their program of learning at home, or to take the plunge and begin homeschooling "for real." But either way, there's no need to panic or feel pressured right now. 

And to those parents who are also trying to juggle working from home at this time, I know this is not easy! I'd encourage you to focus on finding a balance between what you have to do, and ensuring time to take care of yourselves and your children as well. For you it's even more important to not feel unnecessarily pressured about academics right now, but to figure out a routine that works. 

Hang in there parents - this won't be forever. Remember, these are "unprecedented times"!

I'll leave you with the words of one school principal:
Covid Distance Learning Q&A – from a school principal
**Usual disclaimer, I'm a school principal but I speak only for myself. Others may have different ideas**
Few points to note first :
1) This is not homeschooling. This is an unprecedented emergency situation impacting the whole world. Let's keep perspective. This is at best distance learning.
2) You are, and always have been, your child's primary educator. If you decide that your child isn't going to engage with anything sent home and is going to spend the entire period playing in the dirt, or baking, or watching TV, that is your choice. That is your right. It is clear in the constitution. There is nothing to stress or feel guilty about.
3) Schools don't know what they're doing either. They got no notice, no prep time and we're told 'continue to plan lessons as normal and just send them home' as if that is in any way possible.
4) It is absolutely not possible to facilitate distance learning with a primary aged child and work from home at the same time. The very idea is nonsense. If you're trying to do that, stop now. You can certainly have activities where your child learns, but your focus is your job, and survival. Again, unprecedented. Stop trying to be superheroes.
So, a few FAQs:
- My school has sent home lots of physical work. Pages and pages, hours and hours. How am I supposed to get through it all?!
You're not, don't try. Your child's teacher spent a couple of hours in utter panic gathering things to send home so they could say they did their best and there weren't a lot if complaints that enough didn't go home. It's not a competition, or a race, it's unlikely the teacher will even manage to look at it all.
- I'm not doing any work with my kids. All their doing is Lego, cooking and playing outside.
All of this is learning. Very valuable learning. Give yourself and them a break.
- How can I get three different lots of work done with 3 different kids of different ages?
You can't, stop trying. If they're old enough, try to get them to do little bits independently. Otherwise try to do something they can all engage with, reading a story together, some free writing, baking etc.
- So what's the bare minimum you'd expect?
For me, survival mode. I won't pretend that may be true of all teachers, but you know what if they can't have perspective in a time like this then I wouldn't overly worry about their opinion anyway.
My ideal for my kids in our school?
- A bit of reading every day (independent or to them or via audiobook etc)
- some free writing now and then. If they'll keep a diary or something, great. If not, would they draw a comic?
- Practical hands on maths. Be that via cooking, cleaning, outside or some maths games physical or digital.
- Some fine motor work. Lego, cutting, playdough, tidying up small toys.
- Physical exercise everyday
- Some art/music where possible through the week. Doesn't need to be guided.
-Stretch goal, if old enough getting them to independently work on a project is great for keeping brains ticking over. Get them researching in a book or online and putting together something to present to you or family.
- If younger, lots of imaginative free play, the more independent the better.
You are doing enough. You are loving your kids and supporting them through a difficult time. Look after yourself. Minimising stress is absolutely vital in a time like this for mental health. Don't let this be something that stresses you. Only you can control that by accepting it is in your circle of control, you are the primary educator and this is all your call.