As a part of the biannual eligibility criteria review recommendations were notified to schools and sports for consultation. Submissions received were considered by the board and the following will be implemented from January 1 2017.

1. Primary Caregiver Relocation Exemption (PCRE).

PCREs were introduced to allow students that relocated with their primary caregiver and could not have reasonably been expected to remain at their previous school to be exempted from the New to School (NTS) quota for teams. Currently there is no maximum number of PCREs that can be included in a team.

Change:  A MAXIMUM of 2 PCRE’s issued in any calendar year may be included in any team that has a NZSSSC NTS quota.

2. Non Domestic (ND) students.

Currently ND students must ALWAYS be included within the NTS quota for a team. Opposition was expressed based on the possibility of teams being largely composed of ND students. While extreme, the board felt that there was room to exploit the opportunity at the expense of NZ students and the proposal was not supported. In support of the change the board felt that any ND student who has been enrolled at a school for a long period is a very legitimate part of the school and should be considered for selection.

Currently, any student (except ND students) that enrol at a school in Year 9 are exempt from NTS criteria. The board has resolved that:

1. NO CHANGE TO THE ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA WILL BE MADE FOR 2017

2. Recommendation. The NZSSSC board wishes to have further discussion on this issue with regional principals bodies and has made a recommendation to inform this;

Non Domestic students that enrol in and commence attendance at a school on or before the first day of term 3, year 9 shall be exempt from inclusion in the New To School quota. Any Non Domestic students enrolling after that time must always be included in the New To School quota numbers for a sport.               

3. Short term Non Domestic enrolments. The board felt that short term international enrolments were a legitimate, valuable and important part of the NZ education setting (both inwards and outwards) and while a response to the issue was required to curb the practice, to require enrolment from the start of the year was not reasonable. The board ratified its previous decision which seems to have had the desired effect.

No Change. To be eligible for any NZSSSC event any ND student must be enrolled and attending the school from the first day of the term in which the event is held. 

4. Age regulations in rugby.

In considering this submission, the board took into account the views of the NZRU and NZ Schools Rugby Union along with the eligibility rules of major regional competitions that feed into the NZSS Rugby Championships (Top 4).

Change: (NZSRU rule change – for matches listed as under NZSRU jurisdiction). Players must be under 18 years of age on 1 January in the year of the competition. However teams meeting all other NZSSSC eligibility criteria may include a maximum of 2 players who shall be under 19 years of age on 1 January in the year of the competition provided that such players are not classified as either New to School or Non Domestic as described in NZSSSC eligibility regulations.

5. Home School Students and NZSSSC sanctioned events. The NZSSSC board has considered this issue several times past, including as recently as last year and reaffirmed its decision to exclude home-schooled students.  The events NZSSSC sanction are for secondary schools and their students. Home schooled students are not enrolled in a NZ Secondary School and they are, therefore, ineligible to participate in these events.

No Change: The board reaffirms its previous decisions to exclude home schooled students from NZSSSC sanctioned events.

6. Use of ENROL data. Following the recommendation of the Dale report, NZSSSC has accepted advice from the MoE.

Change: If an eligibility allegation challenging the enrolment history of a student(s) as attested by the principal on the signed team entry material is provided in writing to the NZSSSC Executive Director by a principal or an NZSSSC event organiser, the principal of the team in question is responsible for providing to the NZSSSC Executive Director the relevant ENROL record(s) for the student(s).  The principal is responsible for attaining the consent of the student(s) or their caregiver to supply the ENROL record to the NZSSSC.  If an ENROL record is not provided by the principal the student(s) will be deemed to be ineligible.

7. Youth Guarantee Scheme - Flexible Partnerships Learning Agreements.

Following discussions with MoE regarding the eligibility of Year 13 students with dual enrolments (3 days school + 2 other provider), the board expect this to be a growth area for schools as they look to construct meaningful programmes for the rapidly increasing Year 13 cohort. MoE have now finalised their guidelines and documentation templates for the Flexible Partnerships Learning Agreements.

Change: NZSSSC will consider applications from principals for exemptions of Year 13 students with Flexible Partnership Learning Agreements (3/2 dual enrolments) that are completing less than 80% of a course as offered by the school on a case by case basis. The school MUST produce supply a fully completed MoE template Flexible Partnership Learning Agreement and to be eligible for exemption consideration, the student must not be classified as New to School under NZSSSC eligibility criteria.

8. Transgender student policy for school sport. All sports are different in regard to the 2 main sporting issues they need to consider – safety of all competitors and unfair advantage. An NZSSSC policy across all sports would be inappropriate and each sport should develop an appropriate policy.

Change: NZSSSC has produced guidelines for sports to consider in developing their school sport and event specific protocols on inclusion of transgender students.

9. Introduce NTS quota introduced for 3 x 3 basketball. The board agreed to add 3 on 3 basketball to the list of NZSSSC quota sports. While a quota of 1 was considered, to be consistent with other 3 sided sports in the NZSSSC NTS Quota list, and to better ensure students that move with genuine reason are not excluded, the quota was set at 2 (to be reviewed in the next cycle for 2019).

Change.  3 x 3 basketball will have an NZSSSC New To School quota - max 2.