There’s a clear connection between going to school regularly and doing well in the classroom. Higher levels of educational achievement can mean better health, higher incomes, better job stability, and more participation in communities. This all makes society stronger and more connected.

Students aged 6 to 16 years old (and enrolled 5-year-olds) are required to attend school every day it's open. It’s everyone’s responsibility to make sure children attend and engage in learning from when they first start school.

It’s important for schools and kura, parents and whānau | families, iwi, hapū, communities, and government agencies to work together to support and make sure students are attending school regularly. Regular attendance means the student is present for more than 90% of the term.

To increase regular attendance rates, the Government has set a target: by 2030, 80% of students are present for more than 90% of the term.

Attendance action plan#

The Government has an action plan for attendance. The plan is an evolving set of initiatives that work together and support existing efforts to lift school attendance.

Recent initiatives#

• In Term 1 2025, daily reporting and publication of attendance data was introduced to increase visibility and transparency for parents.
• Legislation was passed making it mandatory for schools to have an Attendance Management Plan, from Term 1 2026. These plans describe how schools will respond as students cross absence thresholds.
• Significant changes were made to the provision of Attendance Services. That enables nearly double the number of students to be supported and increase the accountability of service providers.
• A public information campaign has started to raise awareness of the importance of regular school attendance.
• We also updated our attendance operating model to provide a more consistent way to identify and support schools needing assistance earlier than before.

These initiatives have contributed to steady improvements in regular school attendance. Each term in 2025 saw an improvement compared to the same term in 2024. Attendance figures are now back at pre-Covid levels.

We will provide updates on further actions as decisions are made.

Minister's release on the attendance action plan - Beehive website

Quarterly progress report#

The progress report for the quarter ending September 2025 shows:

• reaching the attendance target remains feasible
• there was a slight term-on-term increase in attendance from Term 2 2024 to Term 2 2025.

Government targets – Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC)