The Disability Rights Commissioner is questioning whether the leadership of two schools under investigation for seclusion rooms can guarantee the safety and welfare of children in their care.
The Ombudsman's Office is investigating the use of such rooms in schools, following complaints about Miramar Central School in Wellington and Ruru Specialist School in Invercargill.
The Ministry of Education has apologised for the way it handled complaints from parents at Miramar Central School, acknowledging it failed to act with urgency when it became aware of the use of seclusion rooms.
Now Disability Rights Commissioner Paul Gibson has written to the ministry, saying he was not assured the issue of children's safety was being taken seriously enough.
He cited the Education Act 1989, which gave education officials a range of responses to leadership issues in a school that might affect the welfare of students, including the power to stand aside a board of trustees and put in place a commissioner to oversee a school.
Mr Gibson said he was concerned by both the length of time the rooms were used without parental consent, and reports staff at Ruru School were not co-operating with a separate police investigation.
"Recent legislation, action planning and reviews related to care and protection matters would seem to suggest that it would be extremely ethically dubious for public officials, like teachers, not to cooperate with police investigations of potential child abuse," he said.
"Potential abuse of disabled children is serious and should be condemned as seriously as the abuse of non-disabled children."