School attendance is a high-profile issue in the public eye this year, with a key government target being 80% of students attending school more than 90% of the time, and new proposed requirements for school boards to have attendance management plans – not to mention its inclusion in proposed changes to the Education and Training Act.
This article brings together findings from two NZCER projects undertaken in 2024 that produced findings on school attendance. The first is the National Survey of Primary Schools, which collected data from a nationally representative sample of 187 primary and intermediate principals, in Term 4 of 2024. Second is the School Board leadership – Key issues 2025 study, which surveyed 289 board members from primary and secondary schools in November 2024. Of these respondents, around four-fifths came from the primary sector.
Although the two studies were carried out in different contexts, together they provide valuable perspectives on attendance patterns and practices across the country.
What did we ask about school attendance?
As a focal point in education, we introduced some items in our latest National Survey of Primary Schools that relate to attendance – how prevalent an issue principals think it is, and what schools are doing to address it.
Similarly, in the School Board leadership—Key issues 2025 study, board members were asked about the extent to which:
- attendance is a school-wide priority;
- boards receive enough information about attendance patterns;
- current plans for tracking and monitoring attendance were effective.
Board members were also asked for their ideas about what could be done to improve attendance.
Attendance is a school-wide priority for nearly all school boards, and one-third of primary principals see improving student attendance as major issue facing their school
34% of principals, to be exact. This was a new item in the 2024 national survey, so we do not have previous survey data to compare it to. But we can contextualise the prevalence of this being a major issue with some of the other items that principals said were major issues facing their school:
Principals at schools with more socio-economic barriers were more likely to say that attendance was a major issue at their school (60%) - which tracks with what we know about chronic absence rates, which peaked during the COVID pandemic in 2022
Nearly all (92%) of school Board members we surveyed said that attendance is a school-wide priority.
Schools are working together to improve attendance – but need more help
Principals have indicated that their work to improve attendance has been very collaborative. A total of 94% said they were working with whānau and community on attendance, and 43% were working with other schools. Meanwhile, the School Boards report indicates that the most common change that could enhance attendance was further messaging and collaboration with whānau and the community.
Increase understanding of importance of engagement with whānau to lead to embedding the importance of attendance in the home, and strengthen home partnerships to collectively achieve these goals.
Most (92%) school Board members we surveyed indicating that their Board received sufficient and timely information on attendance patterns (92%), and that their current attendance plans were effective (94%).
However, principal responses to the National Survey suggest they need more effective services to assist them to raise attendance. Most (85%) principals noted that their school uses MoE attendance services. More than half of principals (60%) think they have access to good assistance to help with removing barriers to attendance, but only 43% have found the Ministry of Education’s support for attendance monitoring helpful.
When asked what could be done differently to improve attendance, some school Board members commented on the need for ongoing funding.
We had funding immediately post-COVID which we used for an ‘aunty’ figure to help particular families re-engage with school. This was very effective, and this sort of role could absolutely continue to be useful—but that was short-term funding that no longer exists.
The main themes that emerged in the responses from Board members to what could improve attendance rates were enhancements to:
- messaging and collaboration with whānau and the community
- funding for resources and support
- measuring and reporting
- redesigning approaches (mostly to engage students).
These findings suggest that although attendance is a priority for many schools and most appear to have effective processes for monitoring attendance, having the funding and strategies necessary to improve attendance rates is an ongoing concern.
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More on these reports: