How should a New Zealand school sign in visitors and contractors?

Published 28 October 2026

I built SiteKey for New Zealand worksites, and schools, kura and tertiary campuses now have their own rate for it.

Who is responsible for visitors and contractors at a school?

The school board is responsible. The Ministry of Education’s guidance says boards are “legally responsible for the health and safety of everyone working at, attending and visiting a school”, and that a board is a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015. A university, polytechnic, wānanga or PTE is the PCBU for its own campuses.

The duty to visitors comes from section 36(2) of the Act. A PCBU “must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the health and safety of other persons is not put at risk from work carried out as part of the conduct of the business or undertaking.”

A contractor’s business is a PCBU too, so on any job at the school two PCBUs have duties to the same people. Section 34(1) says that in that case each PCBU “must, so far as is reasonably practicable, consult, co-operate with, and co-ordinate activities with all other PCBUs who have a duty in relation to the same matter.” For property projects led by the New Zealand School Property Agency, contractors need a site specific safety plan, and an emergency plan agreed with the school.

What does a school have to check before a contractor starts?

The New Zealand School Property Agency says contractors and their employees “who may have unsupervised access to children during normal operating hours” must undergo a Police vet and risk assessment, under the Children’s Act 2014 and the Education and Training Act 2020. Contractors who will not have unsupervised access do not need a vet. The agency’s school access plan was developed to reduce the need for Police vetting, by setting out where contractors can work and how they stay apart from students.

Police vetting is the school’s process. The vet has to be kept confidential under the Privacy Act 2020 and the Public Records Act 2005, and a school cannot share it with another agency or accept one from another agency. SiteKey does not store Police vets and does not decide who is safe to be around students. A sign in system can record that a contractor read and accepted the access conditions, and when they arrived and left each day.

Why does the sign in record matter in an evacuation?

Every school must have fire evacuation procedures under the Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fire Safety, Evacuation Procedures, and Evacuation Schemes) Regulations 2018, and enough staff trained to manage the evacuation of everyone on site. Class rolls account for students, and visitors and contractors are only on the roll call if someone recorded them coming in. A paper visitor book is only at the assembly point if a staff member carried it out of the office. A live list on a phone shows everyone signed in at every gate.

How long should a school keep visitor records?

Information privacy principle 9 of the Privacy Act 2020 says an agency “must not keep that information for longer than is required for the purposes for which the information may lawfully be used.” No set period applies to a sign in record. Decide how long you need sign in history for, write that into your privacy statement, and delete records once they reach it. SiteKey has a separate guide on how long to keep sign in records.

Does a second gate mean paying for a second site?

That depends on how each system defines a site. I read the published pricing pages on 28 October 2026 from a New Zealand connection. Sign In App, which SwipedOn is now part of, lists its Core plan at NZ$835 a site a year and counts a site by postcode, with extra iPads at other entrances of the same site at no charge. MRI OnLocation lists its Small plan at NZ$899 a location a year, defines a location as a physical address, and caps Small at 3,000 visitor and contractor sign ins a year. VisTab, which lists New Zealand schools among its customers, does not publish a price, and supplies its own tablet kiosk and a label printer.

I have priced SiteKey for schools and learning institutes at $30 a month plus GST for a site. A site is one geographic location, such as one campus. The front office, the back gate, the gym, the workshops and a separate block on the same grounds each get their own QR sign, and all of them are inside the same $30. An additional site means another campus at a different location, and that is $10 a month plus GST. Setup is free. The sign in itself works on a visitor’s own phone, so a school can start with printed signs and add an office kiosk later if it wants one.

What does SiteKey do at a school gate?

Visitors and contractors scan a QR sign with their phone camera, or sign in at a tablet kiosk in the office. They read the school’s rules for the site, the staff member they came to see gets an email, and they go onto the live evacuation list until they sign out. Contractors complete the school’s induction online before their first visit, including the access plan conditions. The SiteKey page for schools and tertiary campuses lists what it does now and the school features we can add on request, such as student late arrival sign in and a connection to KAMAR, eTAP or Hero.

Common questions

This article is general information about New Zealand law as it applies to schools and tertiary campuses, and is not legal advice. Sources are the Ministry of Education page on health and safety responsibilities for schools, the New Zealand School Property Agency pages on Police vetting for school property contractors, health and safety requirements for NZSPA-led projects and fire evacuation procedures, sections 34 and 36 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, and information privacy principle 9 of the Privacy Act 2020. Competitor prices are from each company’s own website, read on 28 October 2026, excluding GST or local taxes.