Introduction#

The Ministry of Education’s Early Learning Information (ELI) system collects and stores information on enrolment, attendance and staffing from licensed early childhood services.

Licensed early childhood services, unless specifically exempt, must send complete and accurate information to the ELI system. This includes:

• Children’s National Student Numbers (NSN).
• Up-to-date child enrolment and attendance information.
• The ECE Census (also known as the ECE Return).
• The electronic RS7 Return.

Providing data through the ELI system does not replace the enrolment, attendance and absence records required for funding which are defined in Chapter 6.

Chapter 6

There are additional record keeping requirements for services offering 20 Hours ECE. These can be found in Chapter 4.

Chapter 4

More information about ELI can be found on this website.

ELI system

Use of information collected#

Enrolment, attendance, and absence records collected by the Ministry may be used to enable the Secretary for Education or the Minister of Education to exercise their powers or carry out their responsibilities under the Education and Training Act 2020 and is collected and used in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020.

To meet the requirements of Information Privacy Principle 3A, the Ministry requires service providers to ensure that parents/caregivers and staff are informed about what information is collected, why it is collected, how it is used, and who it is shared with.

This ensures transparency in the handling of personal information.

Information sharing#

Information collected in ELI is only shared by the Ministry, where permitted under the Privacy Act, or other primary legislation, such as the Data and Statistics Act, Oranga Tamariki Act or Family Violence Act.

ELI exemptions#

The following service types are exempt from providing regular information on enrolments and attendance to the Ministry through ELI:

• Casual Education and Care Services.
• Hospital Based Services.

However, these services must submit their RS7 Return and temporary closures through ELI Web.

ELI exemptions will be given to services where the nature of their operations does not suit the regular collection of enrolment or attendance data.

Services operated by the Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust are temporarily exempt from providing regular information on enrolments and attendance to the Ministry through ELI.

Sending information to the ELI system#

Licensed early childhood services must send information to the ELI system through ELI Web, or a Ministry-approved commercial student management system (SMS).

Typically, a SMS provides more functionality than ELI Web. ELI Web is a free-of-charge Ministry application designed to collect the required data from licensed early childhood services that do not use a SMS.