School
Attendance Service
How do schools refer to the Attendance Service?
We encourage schools to contact us to discuss attendance concerns and potential referrals. We are happy to discuss your situation and suggest possible interventions and supports prior to referrals being made. Schools can contact their OYWT Attendance Advisor directly, contact our office on 03 474 9547 or email attendance@oywt.org.nz.
Referrals to the Attendance Service are made by schools through the Attendance Service Application (ASA), using your Education Sector Login (ESL). Information on how to access the ASA system can be found here: https://www.education.govt.nz/school/managing-and-supporting-students/managing-student-attendance/apply-for-access-to-the-attendance-service-application-asa/
What does the Attendance Service do?
Our Attendance Advisors contact parents/caregivers to discuss their children's attendance, and work together with schools and whānau to identify needs and barriers to attendance for the student and their whānau, and develop a plan to improve student attendance.
Attendance Service involvement is intended to be a short-term, limited intervention. We receive high numbers of referrals each term, and it's important to us to do our best to offer a responsive service that can offer support as quickly as possible to schools and whānau. This means that when more intensive support is needed, we will refer families to other services for longer-term support. If other agencies are working with whānau to address attendance issues, we may not need to be involved. When whānau have complex needs we may work together with an inter-agency team to address identified needs.
When should schools refer to the Attendance Service?
When attendance is below 70%, or the student has stopped attending entirely without a justified reason, and has not returned to school despite the school's efforts.
Prior to referring, the school should try a range of interventions to address the attendance issues, including phone calls, letters, meetings with the classroom teacher, meetings with pastoral/management staff, interventions around learning support and/or behavioural needs or referrals to agencies. If attendance has not improved despite multiple interventions tried, and external support is needed, a referral can be made to the Attendance Service.
Schools do not need parent/caregiver consent to refer students to the Attendance Service, but should let whānau know when a referral is made.
Non-enrolled student referrals
If a student has not attended school for 20 consecutive days and it is considered unlikely they will return to school, they can be removed from the school roll. After a further 20 school days a 'non-enrolled student notification' will be generated and a referral sent to the Attendance Service. We will follow up with families to ensure the student is re-enrolled at a school.
When removing a student from the roll, if you are concerned that they may not be enrolled elsewhere straight away, you can tick the 'send non-enrolment notification now' box in ENROL which will generate a non-enrolled student referral immediately to enable us to follow up more quickly. This can be done retrospectively on the roll withdrawal page on ENROL after a student has already been removed from the roll.
Resources
We have developed the Every Day Counts information sheet for whānau/caregivers to provide information about the importance of regular attendance, and tips to support children to attend on time every day. This is a generic resource that schools can provide to all families, eg. via your school newsletter, or can be given to families where attendance issues have been identified. This resource is provided below in several different formats.
