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Early childhood teachers have told a survey they are worried a review of regulations will put children at risk.
Teacher union the Educational Institute Te Riu Roa said 73 percent of the 2774 teachers who responded agreed they were worried about the health and safety implications of the government's regulatory review of the sector.
Just eight percent said they were not worried.
It is not yet known what the Ministry for Regulation's review of early childhood education rules will change, though a lobby group for employers has urged wide-ranging changes. The ministry is expected to report back to the government in November or December.
The survey report said respondents were also asked what concerns they would have if regulations related to safety checks, such as checks on sleeping children, and for nappy changes and sunscreen application, were removed.
"This question received an overwhelming response that would warrant an in-depth analysis beyond the scope of the present report. The number of responses noting serious injury or death was alarming. This speaks to the massive risks associated with deregulation in the early childhood education sector," it said.
A respondent quoted in the report said they would be worried "that the environments wouldn't be safe and that we would more likely have children getting hurt, if not death, if these safety checks weren't in place".
Another said: "Death. Whānau need to know these are accurate. We are talking about tamariki here, taonga, the future... Every living thing deserves this respect".
However, most respondents agreed they were "subject to increasingly complex regulations that increase workload".
The report said 93 percent of respondents agreed increased workloads were causing more stress, and 82 percent disagreed that minimum teacher-child ratios were realistic.
"There was also a notable increase in respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing that 'Current regulated minimum ratios do not enable the best quality learning environment for tamariki', at 93.4 percent up from 89.7 percent last year," it said.
It quoted one respondent: "In the past six months, I have heard first-hand from at least a dozen teachers wanting to resign from the profession because of the stress they're under, due to workload and lack of support with children with additional needs, including behaviour".
Another said: "I have, as an administrator, been increasingly asked to work to cover kaiako absences when relievers have not been able to be found. This impacts both my ability to do my own work and concerns me as I am untrained and do not usually work as a reliever, so am not always aware of the processes that need to be followed."
The report said respondents working in privately-owned centres were more likely than those working in community-based services to frequently think about leaving the sector - 36 percent to 28 percent.
Private sector respondents were also more likely to say workload had increased, raising stress levels at work - 66 percent to 58 percent.
Respondents told the survey that the checks and record-keeping required under the ECE regulations were important.
"We need this data. It helps families to know what has happened for their children and to plan accordingly for their evening. It also shows patterns. It ensures safety re meds and sun burn. We also need to know children are safe and who was responsible for them at any given time," one respondent said.
"Those are basic safety elements for children. It is our responsibility to create safe environments for children, it is the fundamental right of the child to be safe. It really is as simple as that. If those requirements are removed, we might as well get rid of ECE in general," said another.
The 2774 respondents included 1081 kindergarten teachers, 987 teachers from private early childhood services, and 471 from community-based services.
