Schools won't be able to hold teacher-only days during term time and parents of students absent for 15 days could be prosecuted, Associate Education Minister David Seymour has announced in a new truancy crackdown.

Schools must have a stepped attendance response (STAR) plan in place by the beginning of the 2026 school year.

Seymour set out an example:

Five days absent: School contacts parents/guardians to determine a reason and set expectations

10 days absent: School leaders meet with parents/guardians and student to develop a plan to address barriers to attendance and "the obligation goes onto services such as attendance, Oranga Tamariki and the local police"

15 days absent: Ministry takes over the response, including possible prosecution of parents

Each school would also be asked to share attendance information with Oranga Tamariki, police, and MSD, he said.

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[–] absGeekNZ 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

There is also the growing awareness, that you shouldn't send sick kids to school.

My 8yo had a flu, was off school for 8 days until he felt well enough. That was one incident....if you have a one bad sickness and a couple of minor ones throughout the term, you are going to hit your 15 days pretty quickly.

He actually went back to school a day earlier than I would have liked, because he was missing his friends; and he was mostly better.

Some families are sending their sick kids to school; they simply cannot afford to miss work. This causes issues for others. This happens every year, worst in winter.

Maybe if we encouraged kids to be at school, making it easy to get there and feeding the ones who don't have enough food....supporting the families in need. Na, lets just punish our way out of the problems. NB the beatings will continue until morale improves.

[–] Dave 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah I really like the idea from the other article I posted in my comment where a school had people who would work with the families to help remove barriers to getting kids to school. Instead of using a stick, they worked with the families to increase attendance over time with reasonable and practical help.

The proposed plan here is more like sending the parents to the principal's office, and if that doesn't work then prosecuting them. It's an approach that starts out assuming the families are evil and the government's job is to punish the evil people.

[–] Venator 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's an approach that starts out assuming the families are evil and the government's job is to punish the evil people.

Not to mention it doesn't help the child at all...

[–] Dave 6 points 2 months ago

Oh did you think that was the aim?