KEY POINTS:
Truants beware. Retailers in Manukau City will be dobbing in any students caught cutting school.
It is all part of a Truant-free Shopping Areas Initiative, organised by the Manukau City Council and Counties Manukau Police, and will see
all retailers within the Manukau area - including Manurewa, Otara, Mangere, Otahuhu, Papatoetoe and Papakura - receive a guideline booklet showing them what to do when a truant enters or is seen around their shop.
Pictures of local primary, intermediate and high school uniforms will be included, to allow retailers to easily identify students of different schools.
Retailers can then question a student as to why they are not at school and can refuse to serve them if they do not have a school pass slip.
A truancy officer will then be called to collect the student, who will either be taken to school, home or the police station, depending on circumstance.
Manukau Truancy Service statistics showed that up to 5000 cases of students skipping classes were made to the group, while an average of 1200 referrals were received each term, annually.
The latest Ministry of Education truancy statistics show that in 2006, up to 30,000 students - 4.1 per cent of the 750,000 primary and high school students - cut school each week.
Truancy officer Pat Kake, who has been dealing with truants around the Otara area for 12 years, says with shopping centres and malls being the hotspots for truants, joining forces with retailers is a logical move.
"It will help us do our jobs. The council, wardens and the retailers - it's a whole community coming together to get rid of a big problem and to help our kids better their future."
Mr Kake said attacking the truancy problem - not only in Manukau but all around the country - would also help towards reducing criminal activity.
"Police have stats and criminal activities that have happened during the day and some of that can be attributed to kids not at school."
The Government's new legislation - that will see parents being fined up to $3000 for failing to keep their child at school - would also help bring truancy rates down, Mr Kake said.
Chief executive for Otara Boards Forum Bill Takerei - which runs the Manukau Truancy Service - said one worrying trend among truants was their age.
"They're getting younger and younger," Mr Takerei said. "The challenge is to have preventative strategies happening - not a reactive service."
The Truant-Free Shopping Areas initiative comes after a year-long trial in 2007, when several stores in Mangere, Papatoetoe and Otahuhu were given the booklets.
A similar campaign in Hawkes Bay last year saw retailers refusing to serve any student cutting school. Moves have also been made in areas including Rotorua and Waitakere to address truancy.
Feedback from the 2007 trial in Mangere, Otahuhu and Papatoetoe showed that the number of times a truant was seen hanging around a participating store decreased, before they stopped returning altogether.
Mangere Town Centre manager David Fearon said the initiative - coupled with "Truant-free zone" signs - had helped to deter truants from the town centre.
Counties Manukau district youth co-ordinator Sergeant Dexter Traill said the 2007 trial had shown a significant drop in petty crime happening during school hours.
