The Government has announced a tougher stance on school attendance, with Associate Education Minister David Seymour confirming that parents who continually fail to ensure their children attend school may be prosecuted.
Seymour said the Ministry of Education is working closely with Attendance Service providers and schools to identify and refer cases where parents are persistently refusing to send their children to school.
“Prosecution is a reality for parents who refuse to send their children to school and ignore supports to ensure their children are in class and learning,” Seymour said.
However, the Ministry will not pursue legal action against parents of children who are absent due to chronic illness, disabilities, or those who are actively engaging with schools and support systems.
Seymour said he had directed the Ministry last year to take a more active approach to prosecutions to make enforcement more viable. “I encourage school leaders to seek that support when all other measures have failed,” he said.
Despite what Seymour described as an “attendance crisis,” he said there had been steady improvements. “In every term in 2024 attendance improved on the same term in 2023.”
The Government’s wider attendance action plan includes a requirement for schools to have their own attendance management plans aligned with the Stepped Attendance Response (STAR) system, which will be mandatory by Term 1 of 2026.
“The basic premise of the STAR is that no child is left behind,” Seymour said. “It clarifies the roles and responsibilities that school leadership, boards, parents and the Ministry have in supporting students to attend school.”
Under the STAR framework, students who are absent for 15 days or more in a term would trigger a red flag and could be subject to intervention, including prosecution.
“Attending school is the first step towards achieving positive educational outcomes,” Seymour said. “These outcomes lead to better health, higher incomes, better job stability and greater participation within communities. These are opportunities that every student deserves.”
