Hon David Seymour
Associate Minister of Education

Associate Education Minister David Seymour says that the Government is delivering real solutions to get kids back in the classroom, introducing the Stepped Attendance Response (STAR) system.

“Any student who reaches a clearly defined threshold of days absent will trigger an appropriate and proportionate response from their school and the Ministry,” says Mr Seymour.

“New Zealand attendance rates are low by national and international standards. In 2023, 80.6% of students in England and 61.6% of students in Australia were attending using a measure similar to the Term 2 New Zealand regular attendance rate, which was only 47.1%.

“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. That's how serious this is.

“The basic premise of the STAR is that no child is left behind. Every student, parent, teacher and school has a role to play. Each school will develop their own STAR system to suit their community and school.

Some examples of how interventions could work are:

• 5 days absent: The school to get in touch with parents/guardians to determine reasons for absence and set expectations.
• 10 days absent: School leadership meets with parents/guardian and the student to identify barriers to attendance and develop plans to address this.
• 15 days absent: Escalating the response to the Ministry and steps to initiate prosecution of parents could be considered as a valid intervention.

“Since becoming the Minister responsible for attendance, I’ve visited numerous schools to see how they’re addressing it. Some schools have an approach that is functioning well, but many do not.

“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.

“Schools will have to play their part in setting a good example as well. This means not taking teacher-only days during term time. 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.

“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.

“I have also 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.

“With more reliable and timely data being made available, the next phase of improving student attendance will be further understanding why students don’t attend.

“I’ve directed the Ministry of Education, with the active co-operation of the Ministry for Social Development, Oranga Tamariki, Police, Kainga Ora, and Te Puni Kokiri to develop robust information sharing agreements so that staff can share appropriate information once a student has been identified as needing support.

“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.”

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