Youth team has 300 truant teens on books
At one South Island school, the consequence for students arriving late is worse than not going at all.
Youth worker Jono Campbell would not name the school, but said students would ‘‘get back on the bus’’ rather than be yelled at by the teacher.
Campbell is the manager of charity Te Ora Hou O¯ tautahi, a South Island attendance service provider contracted by the Ministry of Education to help young people back into the classroom.
Students who do not attend school for a prolonged period are referred to the Christchurch-based team, which has up to 300 young people on its books at any time.
‘‘A percentage of those are families we just cannot contact, we just cannot track them down,’’ Campbell said.
The issue of school attendance was raised on Sunday when Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced a $40 million fund to help schools tackle truancy.
Campbell said the extra money was welcomed, but there was no simple solution to the ‘‘complex’’ issue of truancy.
The reasons for absenteeism could range from a child ‘‘experiencing health needs’’, to ‘‘issues around care and protection’’. For others, it might be bullying or anxiety about their NCEA grades.
‘‘It’s not atypical to have a young person who has been in their bedroom for three months who cannot get into the health system,’’ he said. ‘‘In some cases, it’s taken weeks or months of engagement to get that young person out, into the living room, to have a conversation.
‘‘Sometimes there is a really simple issue, but it usually requires somebody to actually get face-to-face, to get through the door and that’s often the hard bit.’’
School absence is broken down into two types: unjustified absence, and non-enrolment.
Although the number of unjustified absence referrals made to Te Ora Hou O¯ tautahi fell from 509 in 2018 to 423 in 2021, the number of non-enrolment cases rose slightly from 446 in 2018 to 467 in 2021.
The organisation has four staff members working with Christchurch secondary schools. In many cases, they are given just over three
weeks to get a young person back to school. ‘‘For the [unjustified absence] kids it’s a 22-day turnaround.’’
Ma¯ori make up over 40% of referrals, he said, and truancy affected schools across the city.
More than half of all nonattendance cases referred to Te Ora Hou O¯ tautahi are students in years 9 and above.
‘‘If they are not enrolled by the age of 16, we cannot continue to work with that young person,’’ Campbell said.
‘‘So where do they go? The system actually fights against itself.’’
Although student absenteeism was a nationwide issue, Canterbury children had experienced a ‘‘really broken’’ education over the last 10 years.
‘‘Our year 10, 11 and 12 students either had started school or were about to start school at the time of the earthquakes. It was incredibly disruptive.
‘‘That group is now coming into NCEA level 2 [and] they have now had two to three years of really disrupted education with Covid.’’