Subj : What does 'regularly attending' school actually mean? To : All From : News Date : Tue Apr 16 2024 12:52 pm The Government has set some ambitious targets for lifting the number of students regularly going to school or kura. But what does that "regular" attendance look like? Many New Zealand parents would likely be surprised to learn their child doesn't meet the Government's criteria for "regularly attending" school. "Regular attendance" is reserved for students who have been to school for more than 90% of a term - or nine days a fortnight. That means if a child misses more than one week of school across a 10-week term, they fall below the marker for regularly attending. What are the other measures? The other attendance categories are: Irregular absence - where students attend school more than 80% and up to 90% of a term Moderate absence - where students go to school more than 70% and up to 80% of the term Chronic absence - where students attend school 70% or less of the term. The most recent attendance data (from Term 4, 2023) showed only 53.6% of students met the criteria for regular attendance. Short-term illness and medical absences were still the main reason for non-attendance. While this is up 3.5% on Term 4 in 2022, it is still well below the 69.5% recorded in Term 2 of 2015. (Regular school attendance used to only be recorded for the second term of each year.) What about truancy? Being truant includes being late to school, missing a class or missing entire days of school without good reason. Good reasons are like being sick, having a medical appointment or going to an event such as a funeral or tangi. Being on holiday during term time is not considered a good reason. It's against the law for children in New Zealand to not go to school between the ages of 6 and 16. If a child is consistently truant and authorities decide their parent or caregiver is allowing that truancy, the parent or caregiver can be fined. The fine for a first offence can be up to $300, while the maximum fine for any further offences is $3000. If a student is truant for more than 20 school days in a row without good reason and without contact with the school, the student can be removed from the school's roll. Schools can also use an attendance officer to make sure students go to school. What are the Government's new targets for school attendance?What about truancy? Being truant includes being late to school, missing a class or missing entire days of school without good reason. Good reasons are like being sick, having a medical appointment or going to an event such as a funeral or tangi. Being on holiday during term time is not considered a good reason. It's against the law for children in New Zealand to not go to school between the ages of 6 and 16. If a child is consistently truant and authorities decide their parent or caregiver is allowing that truancy, the parent or caregiver can be fined. The fine for a first offence can be up to $300, while the maximum fine for any further offences is $3000. If a student is truant for more than 20 school days in a row without good reason and without contact with the school, the student can be removed from the school's roll. Schools can also use an attendance officer to make sure students go to school. What are the Government's new targets for school attendance? The Government is aiming to get 80% of students regularly attending school by 2030. The plan put forward by Associate Education Minister David Seymour included updating public health guidance "to help schools and parents to decide if a student is well enough to attend school" and a traffic light system for a student's attendance "with clear obligations for when a student is not attending". "Almost every aspect of someone's adult life will be defined by the education they receive as a child," Seymour said. "If we want better social outcomes, we can't keep ignoring the truancy crisis." Ministry of Education research has found attending school is linked to a student's wellbeing and attainment. "Evidence suggests that there is no 'safe' level of non-attendance which has no impact on student and akonga wellbeing and attainment," it said. Labour leader Chris Hipkins said while he agreed New Zealand had a problem with school attendance, he was concerned about the Government's focus on the one target of getting more children attending 90% of the time. "There's a whole cohort of kids who are attending 80-90% of the time - getting them to attend by an extra one or two days per term will mean that they hit the target," he told Breakfast. "The group of kids that we need to really worry about though are the kids who are regularly not showing up." --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A44 2020/02/04 (Windows/64) * Origin: S.W.A.T.S BBS Telnet swatsbbs.ddns.net:2323 (63:10/102) .