New Zealand school attendance reaches highest Term 2 level since 2016

Associate Education Minister David Seymour said the latest figures show attendance continued to improve even as families faced rising fuel prices and other financial pressures.

School attendance across New Zealand continued to improve in Term 2 of 2026, with provisional figures showing the highest attendance rate for the second term in a decade. The Government says the increase reflects the impact of new attendance policies and stronger support systems introduced to encourage students to return to classrooms regularly.

According to the latest data, 64.2% of students attended school regularly during Term 2 2026, up from 58.4% in the same period last year. Students are considered regular attendees when they are present for more than 90% of the school term.

Attendance climbs despite economic pressures

Associate Education Minister David Seymour said the latest figures show attendance continued to improve even as families faced rising fuel prices and other financial pressures.

Compared with Term 2 of 2022, when regular attendance stood at 39.6%, around 199,134 more students attended school regularly in 2026. Seymour said the improvement reflects a stronger focus on attendance from schools, parents and caregivers, with more families recognising the importance of consistent classroom learning. The Government believes regular attendance is essential for improving educational outcomes and creating better opportunities for students later in life.

Regional gains and stronger school support

The Bay of Plenty recorded the largest year-on-year improvement, with regular attendance increasing by 8 percentage points to 60.5%. It was followed by Nelson, Marlborough and the West Coast, where attendance rose 7.3 percentage points to 64.8%, and Tāmaki Herenga Waka, which recorded a 7.1 percentage point increase to 57.8%. Every school is now required to implement an Attendance Management Plan, introducing a structured process to respond when attendance begins to decline.

Schools are expected to contact parents after five days of absence to understand the reasons and reinforce attendance expectations. If a student reaches 10 days of absence, school leaders meet with the family to identify barriers and develop an improvement plan. After 15 days of absence, cases can be referred to an Attendance Service Provider, with continued non-attendance potentially leading to prosecution in serious cases.

Investment backs attendance reforms

The Government has allocated $140 million through Budget 2025 to strengthen attendance services over the next four years. The funding supports a redesigned attendance system following reviews by the Ministry of Education and the Education Review Office, which found the previous approach was fragmented and delivering poor results.

Seymour said the updated system provides better-resourced attendance services, stronger accountability and improved use of data, allowing providers to support twice as many students as before. The Government says improving school attendance remains a key priority because regular classroom participation is linked to stronger educational achievement, better employment opportunities, improved health outcomes and greater community participation.

The attendance figures are provisional and may be subject to minor revisions. Comparisons do not include 2020 and 2021, as attendance records during those years were affected by COVID-19 lockdown arrangements.