Education Minister Hekia Parata announced COOLs (community of online learning) in August - two months after warnings from Treasury.

Finance Minister Bill English was warned new online schools being driven by Hekia Parata were being rushed and could end up being "parking spaces" for students already at risk of failing.

Documents obtained by Labour reveal concerns by Treasury officials that there were "risks" if students already under-achieving at school signed up to online learning.

The speed at which the new COOLs (community of online learning) were being progressed were also setting off alarm bells.

CAMERON BURNELL/STUFF Labour education spokesman Chris Hipkins says taking schools and teachers out of the education equation won't work.

But the Education Minister's office says the Treasury report raised concerns in relation to the US online charter school model, which is not the basis for COOLs, and they won't come into force until the end of 2017 to allow time to design a "robust" system.

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In June, Treasury said the proposed reform was "substantial" and significant policy work was still required - "meaning there are some risks in agreeing to legislative change at this stage".

"Systems for accreditation, accountability, performance monitoring, funding and closing poor performing providers all still need to be designed," according to a Treasury document.

But only two months later, in August, Parata announced school-age students would be able to enrol in an accredited online learning provider instead of attending school.

Teachers and principals were quick to knock back the idea saying the whole point of school is about learning and playing with other children, not working in isolation behind a screen.

Naenae College principal John Russell said on Friday the whole thing was "scary and devoid of any humanity and what it is to be a learner and social being".

Russell said the concept "defied human interaction" and should be a "last resort" option for parents.

Labour's education spokesman Chris Hipkins said correspondence schools were already seen as a "parking space for kids who have dropped out of the system or who are too difficult".

"Those kids, the ones most at-risk, are often the ones that need the most additional support.

"Basically saying you can leave them at home with a computer and some modules and they'll be ok, well no, they won't actually - they're the ones who need extra help," he said.

Alternative education is the answer for those students yet it has been "starved of funding" despite having teachers "best equipped for the job".

"Where it's gone wrong is thinking you can write schools and teachers out of the equation and still get good results - I don't think you will," Hipkins said.

But Acting Education Minister Anne Tolley said most students wouldn't attend COOLs full time and all providers would be subject to a "rigorous accreditation process".

"COOL are not being designed to replace schools, they will supplement and complement them ... it will of course be up to individual students, their families and the school or provider to ensure that learning through COOL suits the needs of that particular child," she said.

Treasury also advised English that reports on Maori student achievement noted that Te Kura - the country's only correspondence school - can offer pathways into tertiary but it was "also used as a parking space until students can leave school or another option opens".

"We also know that course completion rates are consistently lower for distance learning than for face-to-face," Treasury noted.