43609 (2025). Debbie Ngarewa-Packer to the Minister of Education

43609 (2025). Debbie Ngarewa-Packer to the Minister of Education: Is there a waitlist for specialised appointments for early intervention services for learning support, if yes, how many tamariki are on this waitlist, broken down by region and ethnicity?

Hon Erica Stanford: I am advised by the Ministry of Education that, as at 5 September 2025, there are 3,432 tamariki waiting to receive an early intervention service. I refer the Member to the attached table showing the Number of Early Intervention jobs waiting for service, broken down by region and ethnicity as at 5 September 2025. Please note, tamariki who identified with more than one ethnic group have been counted in each group they selected. However, they are only counted once in the overall total. Ethnic groups should not be added together, as this would result in counting some students twice. Privacy protections have been applied to the table. Where numbers are too small to report because a child may be identifiable, they have been masked with an “x” to protect privacy.