Make a report
If you have a concern about a teacher’s practice or behaviour, find out how to make a report or complaint.
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Mandatory reports from a teacher’s employer or former employer
Making a mandatory report is a legal obligation for employers.
The employer (or former employer) must make a mandatory report about a teacher in the following situations:
- Reason to believe teacher has engaged in serious misconduct – see the examples of types of serious misconduct that need to be reported .
- Dismissal of a teacher for any reason.
- A teacher resigning within 12 months of a conduct or competence concern being raised – this applies when a teacher resigns or their employment ends within 12 months after the school or centre has expressed dissatisfaction with, or indicated an intention to investigate, the teacher’s conduct or competence.
- Complaints about teachers who left within the last 12 months – if the school or centre receives a complaint about the conduct or competence of their former teacher.
- Competence – if, after taking steps to address the problem, the school or centre believes the teacher hasn’t reached the required competence level.
If you are an employer submitting a mandatory report, please do not send the Council confidential settlement agreements or associated information, the supply of which would be unlawful. Information such as this is unable to be taken into consideration and will not be used.
Find out how to submit a mandatory report.
Please consider the scope of the information provided with a mandatory report – it should relate only to the specific situation that warranted the report in the first place.
Criminal convictions: self-report
When a teacher is convicted of a criminal offence, punishable by a jail term of three months or more, the Teaching Council must be notified to assess whether the teacher has breached the Code of Professional Responsibility | Ngā Tikanga Matatika.
A teacher with a practising certificate or LAT must self-report their conviction to the Council within a week of the decision. It’s not the actual sentence a teacher received that counts, it’s whether the possible penalty for the crime is three months’ jail or more. Failing to self-report could lead to disciplinary proceedings.
Self-report through .
Those who do not have access, please use this self-reporting form.
The Council will also receive notification from the court about teacher convictions.
The Education and Training Act 2020 requires the Council to cancel a teacher’s registration if that teacher has a conviction for a specified offence and does not have an exemption. A specified offence is defined in schedule 2 of the Children’s Act 2014.
Complaints from the public
If you have a complaint about a teacher’s behaviour or competence, their employer is your first port of call. They must be given a chance to investigate your complaint and attempt a resolution. The Council is not primarily a complaints service and we do not have jurisdiction to consider disputes between parents and schools or kura/centres.
If you are not happy with how the school or kura/centre has dealt with the issue, you can then raise your concerns with the Council if it concerns the conduct or competence of a teacher.
In limited cases a complaint can be made directly to the Council without first taking it to the teacher’s employers, for example:
- the teacher isn’t currently teaching (has no employer)
- you have reasonable grounds to think a conflict of interest will prevent the teacher’s employer from dealing with complaint effectively
- it's an exceptional case.
When you fill in the complaint form, include:
- your full name and contact details (you can’t make an anonymous complaint)
- the teacher’s name
- details of what you're complaining about, backed by any relevant evidence
- if possible, the outcome you would like to see.
Once you download and fill out the form, email it to conduct@teachingcouncil.nz.
Own motion
Sometimes we may become aware of matters relating to teacher conduct or competence. In those cases, we can begin the conduct or competence processes on our own initiative. This is called doing this on our “own motion”.
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