MP Catherine Wedd reports a marked increase in the number of students attending school more than 90% of the time from Term 3, 2023 compared with Term 3, 2024 in the 61 schools in her Tukituki electorate.

“We had approximately 1000 more students attending school in term 3 this year than we did the year before in Hawke’s Bay. This is great news,” Wedd said. “Being at school is the best start we can give to our children to enable them to receive the best education and set them on positive journeys in life. These are opportunities that every student deserves.”

That increase reflects a total Tukituki student population of 38,300 this latest term, with 18,342 attending more than 90% of the time, versus 38,751 students a year ago, with 17,580 attending more than 90% of the time – an actual gain of 762 (but politicians are allowed to round up!).

The good news is that truancy dropped. The bad news is that it remains stubborn and high. Looking at the HB figures differently, less than half of HB students (47.9%) are attending 90% of the time. 

The national figure is 51.3%. Nationally, students in Term 3 2024 with ‘unjustifed’ absence of five or more full days (e.g., taking holidays with parents) represent 14.3% of the school population. A hard core of students, 10.4%, are those who attend 70% or less of term days; that’s down from 12.2% in the previous year.

MP Wedd would no doubt credit the improvement to new Government policies – e.g., the Government has put in place attendance officers to assist with getting more children to school.

She notes that at the beginning of the 2026 school year, it will be mandatory for all schools to have an attendance management plan – the Stepped Attendance Response scheme (STAR). This involves a system of escalating notifications and interventions as a student’s absence time increases. 

The Ministry of Education will work with schools, the Attendance Service, non-government agencies and other government agencies to streamline this. It will also provide best practice templates for attendance plans and toolkits for dealing with absent students, depending on the reasons for absence.

But the underlying social determinants of truancy are deeply imbedded, as BayBuzz has reported here in depth: How can we keep kids in schools?

Stay tuned.