We know high levels of school absence are directly connected to students not doing as well later in life. We welcome this ERO report because it helps us better understand the factors that drive absence. This informs our ongoing work programme.

Report – Back to class: How are attitudes to attendance changing?

The report has found the attitudes of both students and parents to school attendance are improving. The report shows that:

• 73% of students now think daily attendance is important, compared to 67% in 2022
• the percentage of parents who are comfortable keeping their child off school for a week or more in a term has fallen to 31% compared to 41% in 2022.

Those attitude shifts have almost certainly contributed to the steady improvement in attendance rates over the last year or 2.

There is more work to do to achieve our attendance goals. The Government has set a target of 80% of students being present for more than 90% of the term by 2030. There is an ongoing programme of work to reach that target.

Some of the current initiatives include:

• making it mandatory for all schools to have attendance management plans that align to the STAR framework in place for Term 1 2026
• reforming attendance services providers and offering the option of in-school provision
• making better use of data to inform when and what interventions are necessary, including enforcement and compliance measures if necessary
• a public information campaign, to continue building understanding of the importance of regular attendance.

Budget 2025 allocated an additional $140 million over 4 years to support this work.

The ERO report will inform our future attendance work. We will take time to review the specific findings and recommendations before deciding what actions we might take.