Education and Training Act 2020, Schedule 20 clause 2(1)
If you live outside the home zone of a school, whether you can go will depend on how many places the school has for out-of-zone students. The school has to follow this order of priority to fill out-of-zone places:
children who are accepted into learning support programmes run by the school (for example, special education or a te reo Māori immersion class)
siblings of current students of the school
siblings of past students of the school
children of past students of the school
children of school staff or of the school board
all other children who apply.
For example, if there are enough out-of-zone places to take all children from categories 1 to 3, but not enough for everyone in category 4, a ballot will decide which children in category 4 will get to go to the school.