Attendance
This page provides statistics on regular attendance, reasons for student absence and school response to absences. Attendance statistics are from state and state integrated schools in Aotearoa.
Last Updated: April 2024
Introduction
This page contains information on the number of students that attend school regularly, including analysis on reasons for absences (covering justified and unjustified absence) and school response to student absences.
More information about the collection, including when data are scheduled for release, can be found on the Attendance Data Collection page.
The main measure, regular attendance at school, measures the percentage of students who have attended more than 90% of the term1, Historically attendance data were collected for Term 2, however, from 2019 attendance data have been collected for each term.
Indicators
Attendance data forms the basis for several measures designed to aid our understanding of attendance patterns and engagement at school. The main measure, regular attendance (defined as attending over 90% in a term), is captured in the first indicator below and provides a national snapshot of attendance results for the latest school term. In addition, indicator reports exploring the reasons for student absence (covering justified and unjustified absence) and school response to absences are also available.
- Regular attendance for Term 4, 2023 [PDF 600kB]
- Reasons for student absence for Term 4, 2023 [PDF 274kB]
- School response to absence [PDF 312kB]
The regular attendance indicator report for Term 4 2023 includes a section on attendance by school equity index band. This is the first report to include socioeconomic reporting using school equity index band instead of school decile. The school equity index bands and groups page provides background for interpreting data and reporting using the school equity index.
Overview of attendance
In Term 4 of 2023 53.6% of students met the criteria for regular attendance at schools and kura. This is an increase of 3.5 percentage point from Term 4 2022.
Short-term illness/medical absences continued to be the main driver of non-attendance (with contributing factors including COVID-19 in the community and seasonal illnesses). In Term 4 2023, absences due to short-term illness/medical reasons declined for the first time since 2020 but remains higher than 2019.
Term 4 2023 saw a decrease in both justified absences (including illness) and unjustified absences, each making up 6.6% of term time in Term 4 2023 down from 7.2% and 7.3% of term time respectively in Term 4 2022.
Figure 1: Attendance rates in Term 4 compared across 2019-2023
Regular attendance time series data (2011 Term 2 to 2023 Term 4)
This spreadsheet provides attendance data broken down into a range of student demographics, school characteristics, and regional variables.
Attendance data for Term 2 is available from 2011. Data for terms 1, 3, and 4 are available from 2019.
- 2011-2023 Attendance Data [MS Excel 575kB]
Change in regular attendance
The following documents provide an explanation with regards to changes in regular attendance comparing year to year regular attendance from the most recent term to the same term in the prior year.
Most recent attendance report
- Term 4 2023 [PDF 600kB]
Historical reports
- Term 3 2023 [PDF 580kB]
- Term 3 2023: Reasons for student absence [PDF 212kB]
- Term 3 2023: School response to absence [PDF 222kB]
- Term 3 2023: Lifting school attendance in Aotearoa New Zealand [PDF 206kB]
- Term 2 2023 [PDF 799kB]
- Term 2 2023: Reasons for student absence [PDF 246kB]
- Term 2 2023: School response to absence [PDF 238kB]
- Term 2 2023: Lifting school attendance in Aotearoa New Zealand [PDF 235kB]
- Term 1 2023 [PDF 691kB]
- Term 1 2023: Improving regular attendance [PDF 157kB]
- Term 4 2022 [PDF 676kB]
- Term 3 2022 [PDF 1.1mB]
- Term 2 2022 [PDF 638kB]
- Term 2 2022 - FAQs [PDF 148kB]
- Term 1 2022 [PDF 399kB]
- Term 4 2021 [PDF 349kB]
- Term 3 2021 [PDF 662kB]
- Term 2 2021 [PDF 720kB]
- Term 1 2021 [PDF 230kB]
- Term 4 2020 [PDF 142kB]
- Term 2 2020 [PDF 514kB]
Why is regular attendance important?
Attendance is linked to both student wellbeing and to attainment.
Student wellbeing is a key priority for the education system. Ministry of Education insights studies2 show that attending school and kura regularly is, on average, associated with more positive wellbeing outcomes. Ministry analysis found that 15-year-old students who reported skipping a greater number of days of school in the previous fortnight reported worse outcomes on average for a number of measures of wellbeing; schoolwork-related anxiety, sense of belonging, exposure to bullying, motivation and experiences of teacher unfairness.
Attendance is also linked to student attainment in secondary students. Recent research3 shows that each additional half-day of absence from school and kura is associated with a consistent reduction in the number of NCEA credits students subsequently attain – whether that is a student moving from 100% to 99% attendance or moving from 71% to 70% attendance. Students who are absent even 5-10% of the time (which is still considered “regular” attendance) nevertheless obtain fewer NCEA credits than those with higher attendance rates. In short, evidence suggests that there is no “safe” level of non-attendance which has no impact on student and ākonga wellbeing and attainment.
Measures
Regular Attendance: percentage of students attending school regularly
Numerator:
The total number of students who have attended more than 90% of all school time in the term, from students enrolled for 30% or more of the term, and where time is measured in half-days.
(Data Source: Ministry of Education: Attendance Survey)
Denominator:
The total number of students enrolled for 30% of the eligible half-days or more during the term, in each year, except 2020. In 2020 students need only be enrolled for 1 half-day during Term 2, due to students learning from home during COVID-19 Alert Levels 3 and 4.
(Data Source: Ministry of Education: Attendance Survey)
Using the same half-days measure, irregular absence means students attended school more than 80% and up to 90% of the term, moderate absence means students attended more than 70% and up to 80% and chronic absence means students attended 70% or less of the available school days.
Reasons for student absence: percentage of time by reason for absence
Numerator:
The total time of students who were absent from school in the term, where time is measured in minutes.
(Data Source: Ministry of Education: Attendance Survey)
Denominator:
The total time expected in school for all students enrolled during the term, in each year.
(Data Source: Ministry of Education: Attendance Survey)
Absences can be justified or unjustified:
Justified absence: An explained absence, within the school's policy as an acceptable reason for the student to be away from school. e.g:
- Absent due to short-term illness/medical reasons
- Justified absence – reason for absence within the school policy
- Stood down or suspended
Unjustified absence: An absence that is either unexplained or, explained, but the explanation is not within the school's policy as an acceptable reason for the student to be away from school. e.g:
- No information or throw-away explanation
- Absent with an explained but unjustified reason
- Holiday during term time
- Unknown reason
More information about school attendance/absence reasons is available here:
- Attendance Codes 2023 [PDF 198.5kB]
School response to absence measures
- Unjustified student absence: The proportion of students who are absent without justification for five or more full days in a single term.
- School intervention in unjustified absence: The proportion of students who are absent without justification for five or more full days in a single term (Unjustified student absence indicator) where the school has taken action within 5 school days.
- Unexplained absence indicator: The proportion of absent time that remains unexplained at the end of each week of the term.
Interpretation issues
Detailed attendance records are required for the analysis performed in this report, therefore only schools that can provide attendance data electronically are able to participate in this analysis. In earlier years, there were more schools that could not provide electronic extracts of their attendance data, and these schools were typically smaller primary schools. Therefore, the data in this analysis has become more representative over time, as more schools are able to provide this data.
Being present at school does not include justifiable (nor unjustifiable) absence from school but does include classes where a student is at school attending an appointment or on a school organized outing.
Footnotes
- Attendance is measured in half-days. A half-day is a minimum of two hours either before or after noon, contributing to the minimum four hours of school a day.
- He Whakaaro: School attendance and student wellbeing, Ministry of Education, February 2020.
- He Whakaaro: What is the relationship between attendance and attainment? Ministry of Education, February 2020.