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Children's Commissioner Cindy Kiro strongly supports measures to vet young children for targeted help if they show antisocial behaviour.
She says vetting will not only mean that kids who need help get it and possibly prevent them getting into more trouble or crime later but their fellow pupils will get a better education.
"At some point we have to make a call about whether we are actually seriously going to tackle the problem early to stop it escalating into something that will definitely have a serious intervention later on."
In 2006, former Education Minister Steve Maharey announced there would be money in that year's Budget for the initiative.
At the time he said the vetting would aim to enable schools and the Ministry of Education to work together to identify children who were at risk of developing severe behaviour problems, before they became harder to manage.
The Herald yesterday reported that about 3000 children a year aged between 3 and 7 would be vetted and training courses set up for parents and teachers.
Vetting was likely to identify kids likely to become criminals.
Dr Kiro said identifying children with problems - such as repeated violent behaviour or refusing to follow commands - followed up by intervention was common sense.
Dr Kiro said only abnormal behaviour, not typical tantrums or selfish behaviour, would be targeted.
She said evidence showed there was a link between severe antisocial behaviour as early as age 3 and later problems.
These ranged ranged from turning to crime to emotional problems such as depression, alcohol and drug abuse, abusive relationships and the inability to bond with people.
New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties chairman Michael Bott raised concerns the plan would take the state further into private family matters.
NZ First MP Barbara Stewart said tackling problems early was the best approach. "Some may criticise this as the negative labelling of young children, but there is no point in pussy-footing around when many of the risk identifying factors such as antisocial behaviour and repeated truancy are well known.
- NZPA
