Associate Education Minister David Seymour has a new strategy for lifting New Zealand’s school attendance rates, including potential prosecutions and removing teacher-only days during term time. 1News runs a rule over what schools and parents can expect.
The Government’s plans for tackling truancy have already included the publishing of weekly attendance data and updated health guidelines about when to keep sick kids at home and when to send them to school.
Seymour had previously talked about a proposed traffic light system for managing school attendance. Now, he has released details about a Stepped Attendance Response (STAR) system.
Each school will be expected to develop its own STAR system by the beginning of 2026.
The STAR system will set out actions for the schools and Ministry of Education to take when a student reaches a certain number of absent days.
Seymour today shared examples of what those interventions could look like:
- 5 days absent – school to get in touch with parents or guardians to find out reasons for the absence and set expectations
- 10 days absent – school leadership to meet with the student and their parents or guardians to identify barriers to attendance and come up with plans to address those
- 15 days absent – Escalating the issue to the Ministry of Education. The prosecution of the absent student’s parents could also be considered a valid intervention at this stage.
Seymour said he had visited many schools to see how they were addressing attendance issues.
“Some schools have an approach that is functioning well, but many do not,” he said.
“It will be mandatory for all schools to have an attendance management plan based on STAR from the beginning of the 2026 school year.
“The Ministry will work with schools, the Attendance Service, non-government agencies and other government agencies to streamline this. The Ministry will also provide best practice templates for attendance plans and toolkits for dealing with absent students, depending on the reasons for absence.”
Seymour said he had directed the Ministry to take a more active role in the prosecution process.
“I reserve the right to look at an infringement scheme in the future if this approach doesn’t work,” he said.
Coaltion Government plans to lift school attendance, with one area of focus being absences due to illness. (Source: Breakfast)
No more teacher-only days?
Seymour’s new plan also aims to bring an end to teacher-only days during term time.
He said this is because “schools will have to play their part in setting a good example”.
“Under existing regulations, and terms in the union contracts, teacher-only days are only legally allowed to be held out of term time, unless authorised by the Minister of Education,” he said.
“I have asked the Ministry to collect data on when a school is open or closed for instruction for the full day, and for each year group, during term time. It is critical the entire system works cohesively to ensure education is respected and valued by students and lost instruction time is made up.”
Seymour said teachers overwhelmingly wanted to help children’s learning.
“That’s why we’re saying teacher-only days are at the discretion of the Ministry of Education — they’re not something you can just take willy nilly, because if the teachers are not showing up, it’s pretty hard to motivate the students to show up.”
Some improvements in attendance
The scheme will be compulsory for all schools from 2026. (Source: 1News)
New Zealand has been struggling with low school attendance rates for some time.
The most recent data showed 53.2% of students met the criteria for regularly attending school in term two this year. Regular attendance means being at school more than 90% of the term.
That number was an increase on term two in 2023 (at 47.1% regular attendance) and term two in 2022 (at 39.8%).
Short-term illness or medical absences were the main reason for non-attendance in term two this year.
Seymour said New Zealand’s attendance rates were low by international standards.
“If this issue isn’t addressed there will be an 80-year long shadow of people who missed out on education when they were young, are less able to work, less able to participate in society, more likely to be on benefits,” he said.
“Almost every aspect of someone’s adult life will be defined by the education they receive as a child. If we want better social outcomes, we can’t keep ignoring the truancy crisis.
“This Government has set itself bold targets to address attendance, and it’s a bold approach that is needed for the future.”
Govt ‘out of touch’ – union
The proposed STAR system shows a lack awareness about the root causes of truancy, says education union NZEI Te Riu Roa.
“It’s easy for the Associate Minister for Education to wave his truancy stick around but that’s not addressing the reasons behind chronic non-attendance,” NZEI Te Riu Roa President Mark Potter said.
“It won’t help parents or teachers get children into school. What helps is food, housing and health security.
“Teachers and principals are doing everything they can to get our children into school. Punishing parents is not what will work. You’ve got to get alongside them and understand the issues as to why a child isn’t attending, and then mitigate against the barriers they’ve got.”
Potter said the Government also needs to clarify its policy around teacher-only days.
“Proposing to end teacher-only days in term time shows little awareness of the work demands on teachers,” he said.
“They are already working on average 50 hours a week, and then spend time in the term break doing assessment or preparation for next term. Many teachers are limping to the finish line for this term tomorrow, and Minister Seymour’s off-the-cuff statements will not help.”