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About Attendance Management Plans#
From Term 1 2026, all state and state-integrated schools in New Zealand are required to implement an Attendance Management Plan. These plans aim to improve student attendance by providing clear pathways to identify and address absences.
What school boards need to do#
You need to:
- develop and implement an Attendance Management Plan including publishing it online by the start of Term 1 2026
- have regard to our attendance guidelines, the Stepped Attendance Response (STAR)
- periodically review your plan.
What plans need to include#
Plans need to include:
- attendance targets for your school
- key objectives and any strategic goals related to attendance
- a statement that the board will investigate and respond (in line with the attendance management plan) and record actions taken in relation to absences
- a clear process to identify and respond to student absences
- strategies, actions or interventions at different attendance thresholds (based on numbers of days absent in a term)
- how you will identify and respond to attendance barriers and underlying causes of absences
- how you will monitor and measure progress in attendance, including any targets set by the board or the government
- how you will review the Attendance Management Plan.
Attendance Management Plan resources#
Attendance Management Plan survey#
Let us know how useful you found the Attendance Management Plan supporting resources. Fill in the survey below.
Student Management System (SMS) features to support attendance management#
SMS providers are delivering new functionality to help schools implement their Attendance Management Plans. These enhancements will make it easier to monitor attendance patterns, identify students who meet thresholds, and record response activities. SMS will send attendance response data to the Ministry so we can give schools clear insights and practical supports.
Your SMS provider can demonstrate how the Attendance Management Plan functionality works in your SMS. Contact your provider for support with your SMS.
Publishing online#
Schools will be required to publish their Attendance Management Plan on a website.
Before publishing your plans online, it is the school board’s responsibility to make sure your documents do not contain any information that may breach an individual’s privacy.
If your school or kura does not have its own website, we will host those Attendance Management Plans on the Education Counts website.
Send a board-approved request to us.
Email: [email protected]
Stepped attendance response – STAR#
The Stepped Attendance Response (STAR) sets expectations for school, student, parent and guardian, Ministry of Education and broader system responses to student absence. Schools are encouraged to use the STAR as a framework or to integrate key elements relevant to the school into their current attendance policies and procedures.
