More Tauranga youths are not going to school, an Attendance in New Zealand Schools 2014 report shows.
The report, which the Labour Party sourced under the Official Information Act, revealed Tauranga's unjustified absence rate had increased to 6.9 per cent in 2014 from 4.3 per cent in 2013.
Labour Party spokesman for Education Chris Hipkins (pictured) said the nationwide increase was influenced by the shift of truancy services to focus on children at the "extreme end of the scale".
"That means that kids who are just starting to become truant don't get as much attention, and are therefore more likely to fall into a pattern of repeated truancy further down the track," Mr Hipkins said.
He attributed the cause to the lack of extra funding truancy received.