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About attendance management plans#
Subject to regulations being passed, all state and state-integrated schools in New Zealand will be required to implement an attendance management plan by the start of Term 1 2026. These plans aim to improve student attendance by providing clear pathways to identify and address absences.
What school boards will need to do#
You will 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 (like the stepped attendance response)
- periodically review your plan.
What plans will need to include#
Plans will need to include:
- attendance targets for your school
- key objectives and any strategic goals related to attendance
- a statement that the board will investigate, 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 its attendance management plan.
New regulations will set out the above requirements later this year.
When these regulations are released, you will need to update your plan to make sure it meets the new requirements.
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.
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 be able to host your attendance management plan on the Education Counts website. Updated information on how to do this will be available once the regulations have been passed.
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.
