Australia’s truancy crisis – with just 60pc of kids regularly attending school, what’s the best approach for chronically absent students?
What works best to get the lost generation of Australian students back in schools – footy stars and free food, or threats and fines? Explore the shocking data and take our poll.
Australian schools are facing an attendance crisis as the average student misses 1.5 years of schooling throughout their 13 years in the classroom.
School sectors are responding with a mixture of strategies to get students back in school, ranging from the carrot to the stick.
Experts and principals warn punitive approaches are not effective, instead encouraging policy makers to promote positive strategies that ultimately encourage students to attend.
Just below 60 per cent of students attend school nine out of 10 days nationally, exposing a lost generation of students shaving years off their education through non-attendance.
The worst jurisdiction is the Northern Territory, where the attendance level drops to just 43.9 per cent.
READ MORE: Lost generation of kids missing 64 million days of school every year
The stick
The NT Country Liberal Party (CLP) government is going hard on raising its abysmal attendance, reintroducing truancy officers and threatening to quarantine the welfare of chronic non-attenders.
Truancy officers engage with families and students to encourage attendance as well as threaten or issue $370 fines to families.
The Territory government claimed truancy officer were successful in reducing the number of chronic non-attenders (those missing more than 20 school days in a row), but overall attendance decreased in the NT despite the $21m program.
On October 5, the government announced parents who consistently fail to send their children to school would be referred for income management, a measure critics described as “bullying”.
A CLP government spokesman said it made no apologies for the heavy-handed response to truancy.
“Since coming to government, the CLP have brought in a range of measures to increase school attendance, boost literacy and numeracy outcomes, and create pathways to real jobs,” the spokesman said.
“We are unapologetically holding parents to account and will refer them to the Commonwealth for income management if they consistently fail to send their children to school.”
In September, this masthead reported families waiting months to register their children to do homeschooling in NSW were also facing threats and fines of up to $11,000 for failing to send their children to school.
The carrot
Tasmania has the second lowest attendance level, with 57.1 per cent of students attending school more than 90 per cent of the time.
Superstar Tasmanian footballer Jack Riewoldt is the face of their government’s new Every School Day Matters campaign to boost attendance in the state.
“The campaign takes a positive approach and highlights the benefits of regular school attendance and the significant moments, both big and small, that can happen in a school day,” a Tasmanian Education Department spokesman said.
“The Tasmanian government is investing $25.1m to provide healthy lunches and a free breakfast to government school students to further support attendance and engagement.”
In Victoria, Point Cook government school Alamanda K-9 College raised its attendance rate from 86.5 per cent in 2022 to 93.6 per cent last year.
Alamanda principal Lyn Jobson said the increase was due to students wanting to be at school.
“We want to make school an engaging experience, so we provide activities such as personal training sessions in the school gym, art therapy and barista courses which are fun, but also add to students’ skill sets,” Mr Jobson said.
“When students know we listen and do our best to hear all voices and respond honestly, they respond with integrity. This is why our attendance rate is high – the students know they matter.”
Carrot v the stick
Experts and principals say a punitive approach to non-attendance is rarely effective.
Professors Dr Glenn Melvin and Dr Lisa McKay-Brown formed the Australian Network for School Attendance (ANSA) in 2024 in response to the “national challenge” of Australia’s declining attendance.
“We know that high levels of attendance are associated with better academic performance and wellbeing as well as higher likelihood of finishing school,” Dr Melvin said.
Both professors said punitive approaches to non-attendance could actually have the opposite effect.
“There is little evidence that punitive approaches lead to sustained improvements in attendance,” Dr Melvin said.
“Punitive approaches can impact family relationships and create tension between schools and families which may make it less likely that families will seek support or engage with strategies that could improve their attendance,” Dr McKay-Brown said.
“Any response to absenteeism needs to be part of a broad and supportive framework that prioritises understanding the contributing factors for reduced school attendance and addressing these through positive and proactive relationships with students and families.”
President of the Australian Secondary Principals’ Association (ASPA) Andy Mison said reasons for non-attendance are complex.
He said better funding and investment in schools will help communities encourage students to attend, rather than punitive approaches.
“We should trust and back our schools to work with their communities to make schools a happy and healthy place to be,” he said.
More Coverage
Originally published as Australia’s truancy crisis – with just 60pc of kids regularly attending school, what’s the best approach for chronically absent students?
Join the conversation
Unprecedented court ruling stops school expelling boy with ADHD
Read more
‘Left behind’: Coalition wants inquiry into boys’ failing education
Read more