Associate Education Minister David Seymour however, has announced further measure to combat truancy, including punitive measures for parents and a ban on teacher-only days during term time.

Seymour has announced a new resource to inform the introduction of Stepped Attendance Response (STAR) systems in all schools.

“The basic premise of the STAR is that no child is left behind. Every student, parent, teacher and school has a role to play. Each school will develop their own STAR system to suit their community and school,” he said in a statement.

Seymour provided Newstalk ZB with examples of how the scheme could work, with schools contacting parents/guardians to determine reasons for absence and set expectations after five days were missed in a term.  

After 10 days absent school leadership would meet with parents/guardians to identify and address barriers to attendance, and if students were absent 15 days or more, the response would be escalated to the Ministry, and steps to initiate prosecution of parents could be considered as a valid intervention.  

“Almost every aspect of someone’s adult life will be defined by the education they receive as a child,” Seymour said.

“If we want better social outcomes, we can’t keep ignoring the truancy crisis. This Government has set itself bold targets to address attendance, and it’s a bold approach that is needed for the future.”

New Zealand Principals’ Federation (NZPF) president Leanne Otene, however, said punitive approaches in education are well known to fail.

“We would never condone such an approach.

“These are our vulnerable families and that is where the Minister’s attention and resources should be directed,” she said in a statement.

“Schools will lift attendance further, as we have been, with local solutions for low level absenteeism. Just give the schools the funding and they will choose what is best for their context. There are already dozens of examples of attendance success when schools are empowered with resource to get on with what suits their community best,” she added.

“What schools can’t fix are the social and economic circumstances that lead to transient behaviours and long unjustified absences.

“That’s where Associate Minister Seymour needs to focus his efforts and we will deal with the rest.”

While Seymour has announced that teacher only days during term times would be prohibited, the Ministry of Education says Stanford has not yet decided whether or not teacher only days could take place during term time, although she has already said there will be two math curriculum-focussed teacher only days in 2025.

NZEI Te Riu Roa President Mark Potter has said the two Ministers of Education need to clarify what was happening with teacher-only days, which were an important opportunity to get staff together for the wide professional learning and development that’s needed to impact positively on children’s education.

 ”Proposing to end teacher-only days in term time shows little awareness of the work demands on teachers,” Potter said in a statement.

“They are already working on average 50 hours a week, and then spend time in the term break doing assessment or preparation for next term.

“Many teachers [were] limping to the finish line for [Term 3] and Minister Seymour’s off-the-cuff statements will not help.”