Parents could be fined, prosecuted for kids skipping school as School Attendance Officers begin patrols

School Attendance Officers commenced work this month, marking the controversial return of a program the union warns misses the mark of engaging students in the classroom.

School Attendance Officers have commenced patrolling Northern Territory schools, with powers to fine parents whose kids skip school. Picture: Supplied.

Truancy officers have started patrols in the Northern Territory, with powers to issue $370 fines to parents whose kids miss school.

School Attendance Officers commenced work this month, marking a controversial return of a program the union warns misses the mark of engaging students in the classroom.

Officers will patrol identified areas where school aged children are known to frequent during school hours, including shopping precincts, retail outlets, public housing complexes and public spaces.

Education Minister Jo Hersey meets with School Attendance Officers who have commenced patrolling Northern Territory schools, with powers to fine parents whose kids skip school. Picture: Supplied.

Education Minister Jo Hersey said “no parent had the right to deprive their child of a future”.

“Parents who fail to send their children to school without a valid reason will face fines of $370, compulsory case conferences, and in extreme cases prosecution,” she said.

Ms Hersey said she would also work with the commonwealth to refer families of persistent truants for welfare income management.

“Parents have a legal obligation to keep their children engaged with schooling,” she said.

“School Attendance Officers will enforce the law and for those parents who need help, connect them with services to keep their children in school.

“The previous Labor government failed to enforce the law and so far in 2024 issued just 25 fines to parents who failed to send their children to school.”

In 2017, truancy officers were axed from 23 remote NT communities, which Territory Labor said was the result of $30m federal funding cuts.

Then Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion told media at the time the program had been a total failure.

The average school attendance in the Territory was 71.7 per cent in Term 3 this year: 84.3 per cent for non-Aboriginal students and just 51.9 per cent for Aboriginal students.

Attendance rates have declined since 2017, when 87.4 per cent of non-Aboriginal students went to school, and 60.7 per cent of Aboriginal students did.

Australian Education Union NT Branch president Michelle Ayres warned against linking poorer attendance rates with the truancy officers being axed.

“That timeline is also reflective of when the effective enrolment model started to take place, and funding started to be stripped away from the schools when students didn’t attend,” she said.

“That limited schools’ ability to try counteract disengagement.”

Ms Ayres said there was a crucial difference between attendance and engagement.

“An attendance statistic doesn’t say much about that kid’s participation in school,” she said.

“Our concern is where resources aren’t given to the school to engage properly. That might include engagement officers, and there does need to be a point of re-engagement, but I’m not quite sure we’re there with School Attendance Officers.”