More than 8500 children skip school

The number of children not getting any schooling hit a record high five months ago and hasn’t dropped back since.

‘‘I had a whānau of six come through and three of the kids hadn’t been at school since after the first lockdown,’’ Zara Buckman, principal of Waatea School in Auckland, said this week. ‘‘We’re talking about kids who were 5, 6 and 8 years old – all that time in school lost.’’

In the first quarter of the year, the number of children aged 6 to 16 who were not receiving any education jumped from 4949 to 8602 – and has plateaued after that high.

The high number holds steady till September, when 8509 students had fallen out of the education system, many of whom hadn’t been to a single class in more than a year.

This is despite an $88 million government funding package towards improving student attendance and engagement, including $40m specifically for regional response plans.

Buckman said the continued high absentee numbers is not a matter of families letting kids chill at home. ‘‘Some whānau are having to choose between using transport money to send their kids to school or get to their job. It’s a vicious cycle.

‘‘There’s no breathing space to go, ‘Actually, I’ve got extra money. I can do both’. Families are just trying to survive.’’

If students are absent for a month with no explanation, they are removed from the school roll and referred to the Ministry of Education’s attendance service.

The ministry then hands the student’s information to an attendance agency, which tries to track down the child and make a reenrolment plan.

Ministry of Education spokesperson Sean Teddy said attendance services were being redesigned to give more power to local communities, schools, iwi and whānau.

‘‘Te Mahau is midway through phase 2 of the Attendance Service redesign.’’

Contracts for new services will be signed by the end of 2022, according to Teddy.