- Hon David Seymour
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has welcomed provisional Term 4 attendance data, which shows attendance rates were higher than any Term 4 since 2022.
Provisional data shows in Term 4 2025, 57.3% of students attended school regularly. This was an increase from 56.4% in Term 4 2024.
"This data shows attendance rates are rising again under this Government," Mr Seymour says.
"In Term 4 2022 regular attendance was at 48.7%. In Term 4 2025 about 150,000 more students attended school regularly than in 2022. Kiwi students are showing up to school more, and parents are pushing them to attend. Those students and parents should be proud.
"When the Government takes attendance seriously, so do schools, parents, and students. It's important we continue to drive the change in attitude towards attendance."
Central and East Auckland was the region with the highest regular attendance rate at 62.5%. This was followed by Otago/Southland at 62.4%, and North and West Auckland and Canterbury/Chatham Islands, both at 61.7%.
"Attendance rates are back on a steady upward trajectory. This is a good start, but there is still work to be done. I expect attendance to continue rising as the roll out of our attendance initiatives continues," Mr Seymour says.
"Soon every school will have developed and implemented their own attendance management plan (AMP). It means there are escalating responses for declining attendance."
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 an Attendance Service Provider. If absence escalates beyond this point (or for cases of non-enrolment) prosecution of parents becomes a possibility.
"Taking time out at the end of term does just as much damage as low attendance throughout the term. Using the Daily Attendance Dashboard, we can calculate an average daily attendance rate of 86.4% for the first ten weeks of the term, for the last week of the term it is only 68.1%. The dataset is smaller for the final week because not all schools were open, but the low average shows that across-the-board attendance was not a priority. Missing the last week of school would result in a response as part of the school's attendance management plan," Mr Seymour says.
"Frontline attendance services are now more accountable, better at effectively managing cases, and data-driven in their responses. They have access to a new case management system, better data monitoring, and their contracts will be more closely monitored. Budget 2025 included $140 million of additional funding to improve attendance over the next four years.
"Attending school is the first step towards achieving positive educational outcomes. Positive educational outcomes lead to better health, higher incomes, better job stability and greater participation within communities. These are opportunities that every student deserves."
