Schools Funding
Additional Relief Teacher Funding
Additional Relief Teacher Funding covers the costs of employing relief teachers in the event of sick leave, jury service, or absence due to sports and cultural reasons.
For more information about the Additional Relief Teacher Funding rules and guidelines, refer to Additional Relief Teacher Funding information on the Education website.
Sick Leave
Additional Relief Teacher Funding to cover sick leave can be made through the ERS. Refer below for more information on using the ERS.
Jury Service
You no longer need to request Additional Relief Teacher Funding for jury service. The request is now processed automatically when jury service leave is recorded in the payroll system.
Sports and Cultural Leave
If you are applying for Additional Relief Teacher Funding to cover sports and cultural leave, you will still need to use the RT2 Form: Additional Relief Teacher Funding Application- Sports and Cultural leave. For more information refer to Additional Relief Teacher Funding for sports and cultural leave on the Education website.
Applying for Additional Relief Teacher Funding - Sick Leave
Medical Certificates and privacy
As the school, who is the employer of teachers, you deal with the personal information of those teachers who submit medical certificates:
- to justify their absences for sick leave and
- to allow you as the school to access Additional Relief Teacher Funding.
Because of this you need to take care of teachers' personal information in a way that complies with the Privacy Act 2020.
Your obligations to a teacher are as follows:
- Limit your collection of personal information to what you need to know.
- You need the medical certificate to prove the fact of the teacher's absence, and the dates thereof.
Sometimes additional information is provided, such as the teacher's medical history. or the medical certificate may instead pertain to a teacher's dependent. In these cases you will need to take out the unnecessary information by blacking it out, or removing any unnecessary attachments.
We, the Ministry, have the following obligation to the teachers whose information we are receiving: we keep the personal information safe by storing it in encrypted files and only allowing authorised staff to access it.
Accessing ERS
To use the ERS, the appropriate users will need to be granted access, as either Administrator or Approver, by your school’s Education Sector Logon (ESL) Delegated Authoriser, as directed by the principal.
Before you start the request process
Make sure:
- the sick leave has been booked in Novopay before the current pay period has closed
- you have scanned the teacher’s medical certificate and have it ready to upload.
Create new request
Download the 'ARTF create new request user guide', and follow the steps below to create a new request for Additional Relief Teacher Funding.
From the home page or dashboard click New Request.
Select Additional Relief Teacher from the 'Request type' list.
Start typing the name of the teacher and select the correct name from the list.
Click Create request.
Select the dates of absence.
Enter the number of teacher only days that occurred during the absence.
If the absence is related to Covid-19, tick the checkbox.
Click Continue.
Click Choose file.
Locate and select the medical certificate to support the request and click Open.
Click Continue.
Double-check the information you have entered and amend if necessary.
Click Send for Approval.
Notify your approver that there is a request waiting for them to approve.
Approve request
Download the 'ARTF approve request user guide', and follow the steps below to approve and submit a request to the Ministry for Additional Relief Teacher Funding for sick leave.
Click View All Requests.
Click on the request ID of the request that is 'Pending Acceptance'.
Click on the Request tab and review the information in the request.
If the information is:
- true and correct then click Agree and Submit Request.
- not true and correct then click Cancel and Delete Request.
Note: this will delete the request and a new one will need to be created.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
FAQs about Additional Relief Teacher Funding requests in relation to using ERS.
You need to provide a scanned copy of the medical certificate, or letter from a registered health professional, that covers the claim period.
The ERS automatically picks up sick leave days for your teachers from Novopay. This information needs to be up to date so ERS can make the correct calculations for the payment. If it isn't, the calculations may be wrong, and/or we may not be able to be process your request and you will have to resubmit it later.
Just like the paper form there is only a start date and an end date. The system will automatically calculate the sick leave taken between the two dates entered. If the teacher returned to work during the period claimed this will automatically be picked up in the system.