Summary

Regular attendance¹ of New Zealand students fell in 2019. Data from the 2019 Term 2 Attendance Survey shows 58% of students attended school regularly (64% in 2018). Regular attendance rates have been declining since 2015² with more students falling into the ‘irregular’ or ‘moderate’ absence brackets³. This persistent trend suggests that there is a systemic (rather than one-off) driver.

Key findings

• The average daily attendance rate of students declined to 88.6% of available half days⁴ in 2019 (90.1% in 2018)⁵. Justified absence rates increased to 6.7% (5.7% in 2018) and unjustified absence rates increased to 4.7% (4.3% in 2018).
• During the final week in Term 2 average attendance rates showed a marked decline. Being absent from school by just 5 days (10 half days) across the term will cause a student to fall from ‘regular’ attendance to ‘irregular’ attendance.
• Three quarters of justified absence cases were reportedly due to illness. Just over half of unjustified absence cases were recorded truancies or unable to be explained.
• Regular student attendance declined to 58%, down 6 percentage points⁶ (pp) following a brief period of stability in 2018 (64%). This means that around 40% of all students did not attend more than 90% of their available class time.
• Since 2015 regular attendance rates have declined by 11pp, with irregular absence rates increasing by 6pp, moderate and chronic absence rates increasing by approximately 3pp.
• Although regular attendance has declined across all demographics since 2015, the largest declines have been seen across year levels 1-8 and among Maori and Pacific students.

Footnotes

1. Students attending school for more than 90% of available half-days.
2. 2015 Regular attendance was 70%.
3. Refer ‘Background, page 2’ for categories of student attendance.
4. A half-day can either be the minimum two hours before, or after, noon contributing to the minimum four hours of a school day.
5. Average daily attendance translates into the likelihood a student will be present in the classroom over the course of the term. On average, students attended 88.6% of available half days during term 2.
6. Percentage point is the difference of two percentages.