Cases of Covid-19 among children and teachers are forcing schools to roster entire year groups home or offer online learning for those who want it.
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Education Ministry figures show at least 447 schools and early learning centres are managing cases, up from 163 a week ago.
Onslow College in Wellington was hoping to return to normal today after three days of home and classroom learning due to the pandemic.
The school's principal Sheena Millar said it ordered close contacts home last week after it was notified of two cases.
It also offered home-learning for all students because it was running out of teachers.
"We had this sort of perfect storm of a number of staff being asked to isolate and a number of staff who were also away getting tested because they were feeling unwell and we just couldn't find enough relievers to keep the school running normally," she said.
About two-thirds of the school's students decided to stay home but Millar was hoping everyone would be back in class on Tuesday.
"If we haven't had any other identified cases and how many staff we have available is actually the key for us to keep kids safe at school," she said.
"I suspect we may move in and out of this a little bit as we move through the next weeks and months."
Education Ministry figures showed Auckland schools were dealing with more Covid-19 cases than schools in other parts of the country, with about half the city's secondary schools and a third of the primary schools currently managing cases.
At Western Springs College the principal Ivan Davis said his staff were more affected than students.
"From a student perspective we're above 90 percent attendance so our challenge is with staff members often with kids in primary schools where their child has been sent home because they could be in a classroom with a Covid case or they've been sent home from daycare facilities and that sort of thing. So they have to stay home, they have to isolate because they could be Covid-positive," he said.
The school was so short of teachers it was rostering each year group home for one day every week, with the exception of Year 13.
"We're struck with the situation where we've got 11 staff out and an expectation that those numbers are going to grow and grow so we've introduced a rostering home system to enable a few more staff to be available to cover the staff that are isolating because we don't want to bring relievers in that have been in the school and potentially bring more virus into the school."
At Randwick Park School in Manurewa the principal Karen McMurray was figuring out who had to stay home as a close contact and who could stay in class.
"We just got notified about our third case this morning," she said.
McMurray said the case followed another last week that prompted the school to send home an entire class of junior children for three days.
The school was ready for a move to remote learning at any moment, she said.
"This is probably happening everywhere, teachers are told to take everything home at night that you're going to need to work from home if you need to."
McMurray said the school also dropped off hard-copy learning packs to families that needed them.
