Cost to schools of approving leave and hiring day relief
NZPPTA and NZSBA guidance on employing relievers
The rates on this page apply at 28 January 2026. These rates will change over the term of the 2025-27 collective agreement, but the general patterns illustrated will be consistent over time.
Note: From 2024, only certain Māori medium schools can be reimbursed for underspent staffing. For eligible schools in that position, separate advice is provided below in the paragraph titled “Māori medium schools with underused staffing entitlements”.
Secondary schools receive some of their operational funding to assist with relief for teacher absences of up to eight days:
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Most secondary schools receive $3,683.10 per FTTE.
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The maximum relievers' daily rate is $432.79 (rate includes holiday pay).
This means that Ministry of Education funding covers at least 8.5 days of relief per FTTE ($3,683.10/$432.79). Schools are expected to ensure there is sufficient funding in the relief budget to cover actual needs. Schools may either pay for a day reliever from their operational funding or to the Teachers’ Salaries (TS) i.e. against their staffing entitlement.
When the school pays from the operations grant the school will pay the actual cost of the day relief. Actual costs are the salary costs of the day reliever, which will depend upon the step they are being paid on and the number of hours they are employed to relieve.
When a school charges the relief to their staffing entitlement, the school keeps the operational funding, and the ministry pays the actual cost of the reliever and deducts from the school’s staffing entitlement 0.1368 FTTE for that fortnight (which includes the holiday pay component). When a full-time teacher is away on leave without pay from school for one day the school saves one day in a fortnight, or 0.0714 FTTE, which becomes a cash saving to the school if the school finishes its staff banking year in deficit and reimburses the Ministry for its staffing overuse. At $96,000 per FTTE one day’s cost is $263.01.
Relievers may cover for teachers on leave with or without pay, which needs to be taken into account.
The following scenarios provide examples for one day teacher relief:
Scenario 1 - paying reliever from ops grant for a teacher on leave without pay
The school pays for a reliever from the operations grant for a teacher on leave without pay (LWOP). For a reliever paid at the capped step 6 rate, the school will pay $432.79 from operational funding and save one day’s FTTE on its staffing entitlement. The net cost of the day relief is $169.78 ($432.79-$263.01).
Scenario 2 - charging relief to staffing entitlement for a teacher on leave without pay
The FTTE cost to the school is the difference between the saving on the absent teacher and the charge to the entitlement for the relieving teaching i.e. 0.1368-0.0714 =0.0654 FTTE, which becomes a cost to the school on its staffing entitlement, but it saves it operational funding.
The school finishes its staff banking year in deficit and reimburses the Ministry for its staffing overuse. At $96,000 per FTTE the cost of the 0.0654 FTTE difference is $240.71 but the school saves the $432.79 operational funding provided by the Ministry, so the net saving is $192.08.
Scenario 3 - paying reliever from ops grant for a teacher on leave with pay
When a full-time teacher is away on leave with pay from school for one day the school is charged 1 FTTE against its TS entitlement for that fortnight, as they would be if they were present. The school pays from the operations grant for a reliever for a teacher on leave with pay. There is no saving to the TS entitlement. The net cost to the school is the $432.79 from operational funding.
Scenario 4 - charging relief from staffing entitlement for a teacher on leave with pay
When a full-time teacher is away on leave with pay for one day there is no saving to the TS entitlement. The school charges the reliever against TS for a teacher on leave with pay. The banked staffing cost to the school will be $503.72. The school will retain the $432.79 operational funding, so the additional cost of the day relief is the difference between the staffing cost and the retained operational funding (a net cost of $70.93).
Māori medium schools with underused staffing entitlements
From the 2024 staffing year, only Māori medium schools can be reimbursed for underused staffing. You can find information on eligible Māori medium settings on the Ministry website at this link:
Below is a breakdown of how the cost calculations for the scenarios discussed above would change for a Māori medium school with underused, banked staffing. Note that a school cannot be reimbursed for more than 10% of its total staffing entitlement.
For eligible settings, the reimbursement rate for 2026 is $77,000 per FTTE. That means that one day’s reimbursement is $210.96. This changes the advice above in the following way:
In Scenario 1 where you pay a reliever from the ops a grant for a teacher on leave without pay, the net cost increases if you finish the year in surplus as the calculation is now $432.79- $210.96= $221.83
In Scenario 2 (charging relief to staffing entitlement for a teacher on leave without pay), the savings increase as follows: The school would not be able to claim reimbursement for the 0.0654 FTTE difference in staffing. This will come at a cost of $193.07. However, the school will save $432.79 from its ops grant. This means the school will save $239.72 overall.
Scenario 3 does not change, because there is no saving to the TS entitlement that needs to be considered.
In Scenario 4 (charging relief from staffing entitlement for a teacher on leave with pay), the school will not be receiving reimbursements worth $404.03. However, the school will save $432.79 by not using the operations grant to pay the relief costs. This leads to a net saving of $28.79 overall.
Last modified on Friday, 13 February 2026 10:45