Chronic school absences reaching 'crisis levels', ERO says

A substantial overhaul of the under-funded attendance system is needed, says the Education Review Office, as chronic absence reaches crisis point.

In a report published on Wednesday the office said 80,000 children were chronically absent in term two this year, generally the worst of the four school terms in terms of attendance.

It said that meant one in 10 students missed more than 30 percent of class time that term, double the figure 10 years ago.

"We are really worried. We think chronic absence has reached crisis levels," head of the ERO's education evaluation centre Ruth Shinoda told Morning Report.

"It's doubled in the past decade and in primary schools it's nearly tripled."

Less than half these students went on to get NCEA level 2 and were much less likely to get a job, she said. "It really impacts these students' lives".

Report findings

The report said more than half the absent students blamed their mental health, and more than a quarter cited their physical health.

"When you have multiple physical and mental health issues, it's hard for people who haven't experienced those things to really understand," one student told the report's authors.

"I was bullied and threatened at school and the school didn't respond in a way to keep me safe, so I had no choice but leave school," said another.

The report said students from low-income areas were six times more likely than other students to be chronically absent.

It said 22 schools accounted for 10 percent of chronically absent students and five schools had chronic absence rates above 50 percent.

The report said the attendance system was under-funded and ineffective, and that schools acted too slowly to report truants to attendance services, which in turn struggled to get children back to school.

"Schools have tools in place to identify when students are chronically absent, but often wait too long to intervene. Only 43 percent of parents and whānau with a child who is chronically absent have met with school staff about their child's attendance. One in five school leaders (18 percent) only refer students after more than 21 consecutive days absent. Just over two thirds of Attendance Service staff report schools never, or only sometimes, refer students at the right time (68 percent). Approximately half of schools do not make referrals to Attendance Services," the report said.

It said schools and attendance services were not set up to enforce attendance.

"Just over half of school leaders (54 percent) and just over three in five Attendance Service staff (62 percent) do not think there are good options to enforce attendance and hold people accountable. Schools that have tried to prosecute have found the process complex and costly," the report said.

Attendance service underfunded - ERO

The report said attendance service staff were passionate about their work, but their organisations were underfunded.

"I find the schools and other providers often do not understand what our role is and often expect a lot more from us than we can realistically do. The whānau also have unrealistic expectations. Many of them believe we are trained professionals (have studied etc.) and that we will have a magic fix and/or will turn up every day to force their kid to go to school for them," a staff member told the review.

Shinoda told Morning Report some attendance services had a caseload of 500 students to a single worker, and often the services were fully booked.

Half of schools did not refer to attendance services because they didn't think they would get the support they needed, she said.

"We need end to end reform but we also need more funding to match the level of need."

Attendance service Purapura Whetu works with 250 schoools in Canterbury. Its chief executive Karaitiana Tickell told Morning Report the system was underfunded for the large number of students being referred, and the time it took to follow through in cases where they do not receive a response from parents or do not have the right contact details.

The report said when chronically absent students did return to school, their schools often did not do enough to ensure they reintegrated successfully.

An attendance service staff member told the report the education system needed to "provide quality education options to students for whom mainstream school is not the best option, and different education options for neurodiverse and disabled learners where appropriate".

The report said students who were chronically absent had worse education and life outcomes than other students.

Half of the 20 year olds who were chronically absent when they were of school age did not have NCEA level two and nearly half the 25 year olds are on welfare benefits.

"To reduce chronic absence, we need an end-to-end effective system and supports. Our current system for addressing chronic absence does not deliver this. We need to transform the system by building stronger functions (what happens) and reforming the model (how it happens)," the report said.

It called for a range of changes, including tougher action by schools.

"Increase use of enforcement measures with parents and whānau, including more consistent prosecutions, wider agencies more actively using attendance obligations, and learning from other countries' models (including those who tie qualification attainment to minimum attendance)," it recommended.

It said parents and guardians could be fined up to $30 for every day their child was absent or not enrolled in a school up to $300 for a first offence and $3000 for subsequent offences.

The report also recommended more funding for attendance services and schools and more support for struggling families and students.

The report said 18 percent of Māori students and 17 percent of Pacific students were chronically absent in term two, compared with 8 percent of Pākehā students and 6 percent of Asian students.

"To reduce chronic absence, we need an end-to-end effective system and supports. Our current system for addressing chronic absence does not deliver this. We need to transform the system by building stronger functions (what happens) and reforming the model (how it happens)," the report said.

Government response

Associate Education Minister David Seymour told RNZ's Midday Report attendance services did not have enough staff.

He said there were about 300 people dealing with 60,000 to 80,000 children, and it was not plausible they were going to find them all and get them re-engaged with schools.

"I'll be going into the budget process this year in order to increase the funding for people at the front line of attendance services."

Seymour was confident the new Stepped Attendance Response (STAR) system would address the problem.

All schools would have to have an attendance management plan from the beginning of the 2026 school year.

It would be designed so the student, parents, the school and government departments including the attendance service each had a role, he said.

"That can vary from making sure that they maintain good attendance to intervening, with police presence if necessary, when students are chronically not attending for reasons where it's ... actually more of a won't than a can't."

Labour leader Chris Hipkins told Morning Report the issue of chronically absent students had been growing in size for the past 15 years and more needed to be done about it.

He said he was concerned about the government's approach, focusing on students who were moderately absent instead of chronically absent.

Those who were chronically absent were a smaller group and dealing with issues like poverty, mental and physical health issues and learning support needs not being properly supported.

Hipkins said "every government" should do more, and he would not criticise the government for doing more in an area where more was needed.

Seymour had this message for attendance officers: "If you feel like you're doing your job well, then you're a real hero. But we know that there's some who know, themselves, they may not be doing their job so well, and change is coming."

Seymour also pushed back on Hipkins' argument the government was too focused on occasional absenteeism, rather than the root causes of chronic truancy.

He said Hipkins should read the report, and the government would tackle the chronic problems.

"It's certainly true that we could achieve the government's goal of 80 percent of students attending 90 percent of the time by 2030 just by getting those students who are currently attending 85 percent of the time, a cynical government could do that ... however as a government we're really committed to getting every kid to school every day, and we know that if we don't deal with the chronic issue we can't say that we've succeeded."

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