Attendance
School boards, principals, individual teachers, parents and whānau are responsible for ensuring students regularly attend school.
Section 25 and section 31 of the The Education Act 1989 require every board to take all reasonable steps to ensure students attend school when it is open. There are some practical requirements associated with this, including the maintenance of accurate daily attendance registers, but it is largely a matter for individual principals and schools to identify the scope of `all reasonable steps' in their own attendance policies and for the board to provide support when issues around attendance arise.
Further useful information can be found at Student Attendance.
Support for boards
- You can also contact your local Ministry office who can assist you to work with other agencies such as the Police and Child, Youth and Family to develop solutions that address some of the underlying reasons for truancy.
- NZSTA
- District Truancy service
Questions to consider
- What does your school’s student attendance information look like eg, what are the trends and patterns?
- What systems do we have in place to record and report on our attendance data?
- How does this compare with ‘like’ schools?
- What programmes are in place to address attendance issues?
- How do you know that these programmes are making a difference?
- What is our relationship with the District Truancy Service?