16 March 2020
Susan Bates
[FYI request #12250 email]
Dear Susan
Thank you for your email of 17 February 2020 to the Ministry of Education requesting the
following information:
I would like to know, if possible, what evidence or research, empirical or otherwise, was used
to determine the following regulations in Early Childhood Education (ECE)
1. space per child of 2.5 sqm inside and 5sqm outside
2. no limit on group sizes of children
3. ratios of 1 adult to 10 children over two years of age, 1 adult to five children under two
years of age.
4. why two years old was the cut off for these ratios.
Your request has been considered under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act).
The Ministry needs to extend the timeframe of our response to your request, pursuant to
section 15A(1)(b) of the Act, as consultations necessary to make a decision on the request
are such that a proper response to the request cannot reasonably be made within the original
time limit.
For this reason, you can expect to receive a response to your request by 6 April 2020. I expect
that we wil be able to respond to you before this date.
Please be advised that should you have any concerns regarding this extension you have the
right to ask an Ombudsman to investigate our decision to extend the timeframe. You can do
this by writing t
o [email address] or Office of the Ombudsman, PO Box
10152, Wellington 6143.
Yours sincerley
Lorraine Monahan
Manager Official & Parliamentary Information
Government, Executive and Ministerial Services
OIA: 1220553
National Of ice, MÄtauranga House, 33 Bowen Street, Wellington 6011
PO Box 1666, Wel ington 6140. Phone: +64 4 463 8000 Fax: +64 4 463 8001
education.govt.nz
