Current national support for students with behaviour issues

Resource Teachers: Learning and Behaviour (RTLB)

RTLB provide itinerant specialist support to students and their teachers, in order to improve the educational outcomes for students who are five to 15 years of age with moderate learning or behaviour difficulties.

Behaviour Support Service

This service provides advice and specialist support for children and young people with the most severe behaviour difficulties. Services are also provided for their early childhood education centres, schools and families. Support is provided by the Ministry of Education’s Special Education behaviour specialists.

Residential Behaviour Schools

There are residential schools who enrol students who are 8 -13 years of age. Students attending these schools have severe and challenging behaviour difficulties and their local school is unable to adequately meet their needs.

High and Complex Needs

The needs of some children and young people are so complicated that they cannot be met by just one health, education or social service agency. The High and Complex Needs Interagency Strategy is funded by the Ministries of Health, Education and Child Youth and Family Services. The Strategy promotes collaboration and is about working together across agencies to develop a comprehensive set of supports and interventions to improve outcomes for children and young people with high and complex needs.

Interim Response Fund

Schools can access the Interim Response Fund if a student at their school has challenging behaviour which has reached crisis point. They can use the fund to stabilise the situation and meet the student’s immediate needs while a comprehensive intervention plan is designed.

Social workers in schools

Social workers are based in clusters of decile 1-3 primary schools. Social workers are independent of schools. They work with families to eliminate violence in the home, establish good family routines for children and improve family problem-solving and communication. Services are non-statutory and voluntary.

Strengthening Families

Strengthening Families provides coordinated support for families who are working with more than one Government agency. Everyone works together to develop joint solutions to family issues. The family or school staff can make a referral to the Strengthening Families programme. A plan is made that sets out what each agency is going to do. One agency worker is selected to oversee the plan and to make sure the family is kept informed of progress.

Youth Offending Strategy (YOS)

The Youth Offending Strategy (YOS) aims to prevent and reduce offending and re-offending by the small group of children and young people who frequently commit offences and may be attending school irregularly or be suspended or expelled. The initiative utilises the existing Family Group Conference (FGC) system.