Third party occupancy policy
State school property may be used by a third party for a variety of purposes not directly concerned with day-to-day teaching. For example, a community group may have regular meetings in a school hall, or a city council may build a sports facility for use by the school and the community.
The Ministry’s Third Party Occupancy Policy outlines the process for your board to get consent to allow third party occupancy of school land or buildings.
Dental clinics on school sites run by local District Health Boards (DHBs) are a third party, but these are covered by a separate process and lease agreement specific to DHBs.
In this section
- Third party occupancy: policy principles
- Education Act requirements for third party use, satisfying the criteria for third party use, police vetting for non-teaching staff and insurance and replacement damage to buildings occupied by third parties
- Third party occupancy: approval process
- Boards of trustees must seek approval in principal from the local Ministry of Education office before agreeing to any third party occupancy use of state school property
- Third party use: other types of use
- Other types of third party use of school property include Civil Defence relief centres and polling stations
- Third party use: Closed school sites
- When school property is in the disposal process the Ministry will consider granting a short-term license to a community group as an alternative caretaking arrangement