Stepped Attendance Response – STAR#

The STAR gives schools:

• clear guidance on what to do when absences reach certain levels
• ideas for actions schools, students, whānau | families and the Ministry can take to support attendance
• a structure to help improve and support existing school policies.

Take action#

Schools need to take action when a student's absence hits 3 set levels or "thresholds". The STAR outlines what these actions should be.

These thresholds apply to the total number of days a student is absent in 1 school term:

• 5 days
• 10 days
• 15 days.

The limit is reset at the end of each term.

Download the STAR#

Download the STAR to learn more about what the actions schools, students and whānau need to take are.

Attendance management plans#

All state and state-integrated schools in New Zealand have been required to have an attendance management plan since the beginning of Term 1 2026.

These plans aim to improve student attendance by describing:

• the school's objectives and priorities for student attendance and absence
• what schools will do to identify student absence and barriers to attendance
• how schools will monitor and measure progress in attendance
• the actions schools will take to fix an absence.

Schools should adapt their attendance management plan to fit their own community, but they must "have regard" for the Stepped Attendance Response (STAR) when writing their plan. This means using STAR guidance to help identify their strategies and actions.

Example plan#

See an example plan for secondary schools.