The government has confirmed it will establish 82 new attendance officer roles, plus additional further investment, for a total $74 million.<\/p>\n
Education Minister Jan Tinetti said it would include a commitment to improved and standardised attendance data.<\/p>\n
“We are going back to basics on attendance,” she said. “This $74 million package puts resources on the ground to support schools and students.”<\/p>\n
She said the Attendance Service already worked with students with low or declining rates of attendance, and the funding would allow it to support another 3000 young people.<\/p>\n
“The decline in school attendance began in 2015, but the pandemic has exacerbated the issue. We need to be doing more to help schools and kura support students who are not attending or engaged in education.<\/p>\n
“We know that there are many reasons why a child might not show up to school, which is why we’re also continuing our initiatives that are focused on removing barriers to education such as free period products, free healthy school lunches, school donations, preventing bullying and redesigning our curriculum.”<\/p>\n
There are a variety of Attendance Services, with some run directly by “lead” schools, others run by iwi M\u0101ori and other non-government organisations, or a mix of the two depending on the kind of absence.<\/p>\n
Total funding for the services was increased to more than $15 million in Budget 2021\/22 – a 21.8 percent increase on the previous year – plus an additional one-off $600,000 support package for Auckland in recognition of regional lockdowns.<\/p>\n
This followed smaller yearly increases in the previous two years, after funding was frozen between 2013 and 2019.<\/p>\n
The government also carried out a review and redesign of attendance services from May last year. In a survey as part of the review, attendance service providers said the work was getting harder with large volumes and complex cases.<\/p>\n
They said Covid-19 had brought additional challenges, increasing hostility towards the officers and making it more difficult to connect with wh\u0101nau.<\/p>\n
Newer providers also complained of a lack of resources and materials for setting up the service, calling for things like template job descriptions.<\/p>\n
Tinetti is visiting Wellington East Girls’ College to officially announce the move this morning.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
SOURCE RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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