Regular attendance was defined as attending more than 90 percent of the time in a single school term.
Photo: RNZ/ Dan Cook
Provisional data shows 57.3 percent of children attended school regularly in term 4 last year.
It’s the highest term 4 figure since regular attendance hit all-time lows in 2022.
Regular attendance was defined as attending more than 90 of the time in a single school term and the government wanted 80 percent of children meeting the benchmark by 2030.
Associate Education Minister David Seymour said regular attendance rates were 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,” Seymour said.
“Soon every school will have developed and implemented their own attendance management plan. It means there are escalating responses for declining attendance.”
Seymour said that might see schools contacting families when students were absent for five days, organising family meetings if absence reached 10 days, and alerting truancy services if they reached 15 days.
Central and East Auckland had the highest regular attendance in the fourth term last year at 62.5 percent by Otago/Southland at 62.4 percent, he said.
The national rate of 57.3 percent was up from 56.4 percent for the same term in 2024 and well above the low of 48.7 percent reached in term 4 2022.
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