Budget 2025: David Seymour reveals $140m boost to lift school attendance, plans for new nationwide service
The remaining $17m will go towards strengthening existing frontline attendance services.
'Frontline attendance services will be more accountable, better at effectively managing cases, and data-driven in their responses,' Seymour said.
'To achieve this, they will soon have access to a new case management system and better data monitoring, and their contracts will be more closely monitored.
The 2024 ERO report made four recommendations for a new attendance scheme to address chronic absences from school. They were:
Strengthening how we prevent students becoming chronically absent. This would require social agencies to address the barriers to attendance that sit outside of the education sector.
Having effective targeted supports in place to address chronic absence including clearer roles and responsibilities for chronic absence for schools, attendance services, families and other agencies.
Increasing the focus on retaining students on their return, including a deliberate plan to support returning students to reintegrate, be safe, and catch up.
Implementing an efficient and effective model. This relates to centralised functions such as information sharing agreements between agencies and prosecutions of parents, and localised actions like ensuring schools have the necessary resources and support.
The Government's new attendance model would address recommendations two to four.
'The wider attendance action plan, which includes the requirement for schools to have their own attendance management plan aligned with the Stepped Attendance Response [Star] in place by Term 1 of 2026, will address all four.'
Seymour said service providers would work with families, local communities and social agencies.
The level of service provided would depend on the need, ranging from advice and support to schools to intensive case management of students.
Schools with the highest numbers of chronically absent students would be able to apply for funding for an in-school service, he said.
'The schools in this bracket tend to be ones in higher equity index groups, facing the most socio-economic barriers.'
Moving to the new attendance service would begin at the end of this year and the new services would become fully operational from early 2026.
'Attending school is the first step towards achieving positive educational outcomes,' Seymour said.
'Positive educational outcomes lead to better health, higher incomes, better job stability and greater participation within communities. These are opportunities that every student deserves.'
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