Popular Macleans College in East Auckland is one of New Zealand's biggest schools.
Nine students were kicked out and parents of 700 more at one of the country’s largest schools twice had to prove their kids had a right to attend the school after enrolment fraud spiked as schools battle bulging rolls amid increased immigration and in-fill housing.
Like other schools with enrolment zones in place to prevent overcrowding and guarantee children can attend their local school as the most popular schools face soaring rolls, Macleans College requires parents to sign a statutory declaration and provide proof they live in zone when enrolling their children.
But in the last year, the Auckland high school had to kick nine pupils out after discovering they’d been fraudulently enrolled, a school leader said.
In a post to the East Auckland Grapevine Facebook group this month, a parent questioned why they’d been asked to again provide proof of residence months after enrolling their child.
“Do the parents or caregivers of all Macleans students have to provide to the school an exact copy of your power bill every [six months] with all your personal details on it to ensure you are still in-zone?
“What happened to your word and a signed enrolment form?” the anonymous complainant wrote.
Some replied that parents had tried to “cheat the system” to get out-of-zone kids into the school.
Principals have long spoken of the extreme measures some parents take to enrol kids into their school of choice, with Auckland Grammar headmaster Tim O’Connor telling 1News earlier this year people had rented garages or put phone lines into others’ homes to look like they live there.
Hong Kong-based New Zealand citizen Hillary Au-Yeung picketed outside Auckland Grammar in March after the school refused to enrol her son, saying the grandfather he lived with in an in-zone home owned by Au-Yeung wasn’t his legal guardian.
Other commenters on East Auckland Grapevine post questioned why Macleans wanted ongoing proof of eligibility.
“I would be checking with the Ministry of Education as I’m not sure they have any grounds to continue to expect that,” wrote one.
The school decided to do a “blanket request” for power bills proving the addresses of the roughly 700 pupils enrolled since July last year after nine out-of-zone pupils in the last year were found to have been fraudulently enrolled by their parents, deputy principal Tina Mair said.
“We had two in 2023 and seven since the beginning of 2024, and all of these were very blatant people who didn’t live in-zone, but had provided fraudulent information to indicate they did.
“It is fraud... on the bottom of the statutory declaration, which we ask parents to sign in the presence of a JP, it makes it very clear this is a legal document, and to make a fraudulent claim is a criminal offence. But unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to deter.”
The school hadn’t complained to police, but asked their police liaison officer for advice and wouldn’t rule out involving police in future cases, Mair said.
As with other schools under roll pressure, it’s possible cases of enrolment fraud remain undetected despite their efforts, she said.
Removing ineligible pupils was traumatic for all, especially the child.
“It’s actually the student that suffers if they have to move schools when they’ve already settled here.”
The nine incidents were the first cases of enrolment fraud discovered since she became responsible for enrolments two and a half years ago, and while there’d likely been occasional cases in the past, it was “certainly stepping up”.
Four of the nine were re-enrolled after their families subsequently moved into the school zone.
A few parents facing second eligibility checks had contacted them, but “everybody was fine” once told why, Mair said.
“I think families that legitimately live in-zone, and perhaps pay higher rent or have a bigger mortgage than they would care to because they want to live in-zone, actually welcome this... there’s a quite a bit of disgruntlement over families that perhaps have a larger house in a cheaper suburb, but defraud us into getting their kids in here.”
Last year, only siblings of current students were able to be enrolled under the six-category Ministry of Education ranking that allows places for out-of-zone pupils once all in-zone pupils were enrolled, Mair said.
About 50 families with a parent who was a former pupil had to be turned away, along with a couple hundred seeking a place via ballot, the lowest of the out-of-zone categories.
“We’re a bit of a victim of our own success.”
She didn’t know whether any out-of-zone pupils would be enrolled next year, as enrolment applications for planning purposes closed next month.
The 2900-pupil school was “bursting at the seams” with rising immigration and increased in-fill housing.
“We have 400 more students [enrol] in the last couple of years, and we’re growing and growing because in the streets nearby... they’ll take down one older house and put up six townhouses.
“This is putting us under huge pressure.”
In February, Macleans principal Steve Hargreaves told RNZ the school had self-funded five new classrooms - using money raised through having international students – because waiting for the ministry would take too long.
“If we didn’t, I don’t know where we’d be teaching our classes right now.”
A Herald story in April on property prices for 337 Auckland school zones showed the Bucklands Beach school was the secondary school zone where house prices had jumped the most in the last decade.
A typical home in Macleans College’s zone was $1.68 million, having jumped $739,500 since 2014.
But schools elsewhere were under pressure too, and also keeping watch for enrolment fraud.
He hadn’t seen any cases, Papatoetoe High School principal Vaughan Couillault said.
Neither was the Secondary Principals’ Association of NZ president aware of a bump in incidents at other schools.
“That doesn’t mean it isn’t happening... generally fraud is covert, not overt.”
But many schools were under immense growth pressure – his own roll had risen by 400 to 1700 since the end of 2022, thanks to immigration and in-fill housing.
“We had 200 unexpected enrolments in the first 10 days our office was open at the beginning of the year. About 25 kids is a class for a teacher – I can’t recruit fast enough.”
Rolls were up at schools such as Ormiston Senior College after new subdivisions went in, or as Kāinga Ora bought social housing to get people out of temporary accommodation, Couillault said.
“This is the first year that I’ve only [enrolled] out-of-zone siblings [of current pupils], and next year I’m only doing out-of-zone special needs, because we’ve got a satellite unit.”
Enrolment applications for next year were double those of recent years for both in-zone and out-of-zone pupils at Epsom Girls’ Grammar, principal Brenda McNaughton said in an emailed statement.
“We have a robust process to ensure entry to our school is fair to all the families wishing to be part of our community.”
The Herald couldn’t contact principals at large and popular Auckland high schools Rangitoto College and Mt Albert Grammar, but O’Connor said there did “seem to have been a spike” in enrolment fraud attempts at Auckland Grammar this year.
“These sorts of cases appear to have grown. The need for us to use private investigators to actually monitor whether the in-zone application address is actually the place of residence is prevalent... our board would’ve annulled at least three enrolments this year.”
Enrolments at 2714-pupil Auckland Grammar were already up 120 on the same time last year, O’Connor said, citing immigration.
They had room for only 30 of the 750 applicants to this year’s out-of-zone ballot, O’Connor said.
“Probably next year, all out-of-zone [ballot] applicants may well miss out. And I understand Rangi [Rangitoto College] and Mags [Mt Albert Grammar School] aren’t going to have any out-of-zone [places], not even the priorities.”
Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years and specialises in general news and features.
The 19-year-old disappeared without her wallet or mobile phone.