Parent prosecuted for truancy fails to show at court hearing

Associate Education Minister David Seymour says attendance is steadily improving. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii

The only parent prosecuted in the government's crackdown on truancy so far failed to turn up to a court date, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour.

Appearing before the Education and Workforce Select Committee, Seymour said 36 parents had been liable for prosecution.

He said the threat of court action was sufficient to prompt 18 of those families to send their children to school and 17 others remained under process.

"A further one had a court date set, but sadly did not show up for court. So you can see that potentially in that family attendance is a multi-generational problem and not just at school," he said.

As the minister responsible for school attendance, Seymour said the biggest barrier to reaching the government's goal of 80 percent of students attending more than 90 percent of their classes by 2030 was likely to be parents "who won't play ball".

"At some point we're going to start making it clear that this is an obligation... it is a real offence against your children's future," he said.

"This will only apply to people who could send their children to school, they don't face any other barriers, they just won't. Intransigent people."

Green Party MP Lawrence Xu-Nan asked Seymour if schools needed to do more to encourage students' enjoyment and engagement with school.

Xu-Nan said some schools were unhappy that attendance rules had changed to limit their flexibility to grant students' permission to study from home.

Seymour said schools were only open for about 180 days a year, which left 185 days for other activities.

"You only have to show up to school like 50 percent of the days. I don't think that's too much," he said.

The Education Ministry's website said primary schools must be open for 378 half days and secondary and composite schools for 376 half days this year.

The Ministry of Education is investigating 16 cases of chronic absence.

The government announced it was taking a parent to court over their child's chronic absence from school as part of a crackdown on truancy. Audio

David Seymour last year promised the government would be tougher, and at least one case is working its way through the courts.

The Ministry of Education is now poised to take legal action against parents who fail to send their kids to school, David Seymour says. Audio