The Destiny Church, a private Christian Maori school and an online learning company have failed in their bids to set up partnership or charter schools.
The Government is yet to announce who will run the first of the publicly-funded private schools in 2014, but has started telling those who have missed out.
It will not comment on the partnership school selection process, other than to say it has not yet made any final decisions or awarded any contracts.
However, some organisations say they have been turned down. They include the Destiny Church, Nga Kakano, a private Maori Christian school in the Auckland suburb of Te Atatu, and digital learning company SchoolSims.
Their reactions ranged from stunned surprise and disappointment to grudging acceptance.
Other groups say they hope decisions are made soon so they have time to open the first partnership schools next year.
Destiny Church, headed by Brian Tamaki, already runs a private school in South Auckland which teaches the International Cambridge Curriculum and uses New Zealand registered teachers.
Spokesperson Richard Lewis says the church found out this week the application to change to the charter model has been declined by the Partnership Schools Authorisation Board.
Mr Lewis says Destiny Church wanted its school to become a charter school because the extra state funding would have allowed it to expand and make changes to suit its community.
