Attitudes to truancy improve, parents still taking kids out of school for holidays - report

Attitudes to truancy have improved but too many parents are still taking children out of school for holidays and family events, an Education Review Office (ERO) report reveals.

The report 'Back to class: How are attitudes to attendance changing?' published on Wednesday also found punishing truants could make the problem worse, as could schools closing for half-days or on Tuesdays or Thursdays during the school term.

It said schools were making a difference by setting clear expectations and improving students' sense of connection, but some were overwhelmed by the scale of truancy.

"Teachers can feel overwhelmed by the responsibility (particularly if the school has other issues it is facing) and want additional roles to help with attendance and help with educating parents about the importance of regular attendance," it said.

"Some attendance challenges facing families are beyond what school can address and require broader responses."

Schools reported that term-time holidays were their main attendance challenge, especially in high socio-economic communities where 88 percent of teachers said it was the biggest problem compared to 49 percent in low socio-economic communities.

ERO deputy chief executive Ruth Shinoda told RNZ attitudes were a big predictor of attendance.

"Students are four times more likely to miss school if their parents generally are comfortable with that, they're twice as likely to be attending if they think it's important. Attitudes are a big predictor of attendance and and what we've found is what schools are doing is really working to change how seriously students take going to school," she said.

Shinoda said four actions were particularly effective for improving attendance.

"The first is making sure that students are connected to school. Students who feel they belong at school are five times more likely to be going to school and taking it seriously. The second one is clear expectations. The third is practical supports and then the fourth is rewards and recognition. Those things together make a big difference," she said.

"We now know that there is twice as many students who report never wanting to miss school than there was three year ago."

The report's recommendations included continuing to share attendance figures with parents, removing the distinction between unjustified absences (truancy) and justified absences such as illness, and increasing parents' awareness of legal consequences for failing to support attendance.

It also recommended including an attendance record or requirement in the qualification that replaces NCEA, considering different term dates for different regions to reduce the cost of school holiday travel, and putting resources into catch-up classes for students who missed classes due to overseas travel.

The report recommended monitoring the impact of school closures looking "carefully at which days schools are open for instruction and how this is communicated to parents to support attendance".

The government is trying to improve attendance after it reached record lows in 2022 due to factors many teachers blamed on the covid-19 pandemic.

It wants 80 percent of students attending school regularly (defined as attending more than 90 percent of classes) by 2030.

The report said attendance was "now back at pre-Covid levels", with a regular attendance rate of 58 percent in term 2 this year.

However, attendance statistics showed that was true if only 2019's term 2 regular attendance rate (57 percent) was considered - in every other year from 2011-2018, the term 2 rate ranged from 64-69 percent.

The report was based on surveys of 890 school leaders, 1967 teachers, 5082 students, and 6683 parents and whānau, as well as interviews and focus groups with 300 participants and visits to 16 schools in term 2 this year.

It found 73 percent of students thought daily attendance was important, up from 67 percent in 2022, and 28 percent never wanted to miss school, up from 15 percent.

The report said attitudes improved most among students from low-income areas.

"Students in low socio-economic communities now think school is just as important for their future as students in high socio-economic communities (82 and 84 percent respectively). Low socio-economic students' attitudes were previously 10 percentage points lower than high socio-economic students," the report said.

"Concerningly, Māori students are the only group of students whose attitudes to daily attendance have not improved (only two thirds, 67 percent, see daily attendance as important)."

However, 23 percent of students said they would want to miss schools for family and cultural events, up from 17 percent in 2022.

The report said it found that parents were less likely to entertain long absences from schools, but were more comfortable about shorter absences.

It said the percentage comfortable with their child taking a week or more off school dropped from 41 to 31 percent, but the number comfortable with children missing a couple of days rose from 50 to 59 percent.

"Parents tell us they are less comfortable with extended absences due to school messaging around the importance of attendance, through newsletters and direct communications with teachers. This messaging is especially impactful when schools refer to the impacts on their child's achievement and lifelong outcomes," the report said.

"Parents are being firmer on their children going to school rather than staying at home for mental health reasons. Parents willing to keep their child off school for mental health reasons have reduced from almost half (46 percent) in 2022 to around a quarter (28 percent) in 2025. Parents tell us that knowing their child will receive the right supports at school makes a difference.

"Nearly half of parents (47 percent) are still willing to let their child miss school for family holidays of one or two days (the same as 46 percent in 2022)."

The report said good parental and student attitudes to attendance were strongly linked to regular attendance.

School actions drive improvement

The report said the improvements in student and parental attitudes were linked to schools providing clearer expectations, practical supports and rewards, as well as making students feel connected to school.

"Students are five times more likely to think daily attendance is important if they feel they belong at school. Three-quarters of students (73 percent) feel they belong," the report said.

"Schools setting clear expectations about attendance is the most important factor for parents reporting that school is important for their child's future - parents are twice as likely to report school is important if the school is setting clear expectations."

The report said rewards for attendance had a positive effect, while punishments had a positive effect on parents' attitudes but a negative effect on students.

"Students who report their school uses consequences are a third less likely to report they attend school regularly," it said.

"Students who report their school uses consequences are also a third less likely to think daily attendance is important."

However, parents with children at schools with consequences were more likely to report their children attended regularly.

"Secondary parents are more than one-and-a-half times as likely to report their child has regular attendance if the school uses consequences," the report said.

"In addition, parents are nearly one-and-a-half times more likely to report that daily attendance is important if their child's school is using consequences, compared to not being used."

The report said the number of days of instruction mattered for primary schools and 35 percent of parents said their children's school was sometimes or often closed on days they thought it should be open.

"We found that frequent or poorly timed closures can encourage absenteeism. Closures on Thursdays or Tuesdays can lead to extended weekends. Similarly, halfday closures can result in full-day absences due to practical incentives, such as saving on transport costs and easier household arrangements," the report said.

The report said almost all schools were setting clear expectations, analysing attendance data and following up on absences.

About half of schools used rewards for attendance and about 30 percent used consequences.

It said 74 percent of teachers and school leaders reported providing practical support to help students attend and a third of those said they were doing so more than they did a year ago.

"The most common practical supports provided by schools are transport, uniform and food, which can all be barriers to attendance. Some schools have vans that are used to help transport students to school. Some primary schools arrange walking buses, which can be especially helpful for working parents and families with siblings at different schools. We also heard that staff sometimes pick up students in their cars to get them to school," the report said.

The report said some schools had higher attendance rates than expected given their community's socio-economic background.

"Schools that out-perform are aspirational in their approach and maintain a deliberate, relentless focus on improving attendance. Leadership sets the tone by prioritising attendance as a core part of the school culture. This includes establishing visible, schoolwide targets, consistently reinforcing the value of regular attendance, and celebrating progress to maintain momentum," it said.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.