Truancy services' focus may shift

Truancy services are in for a shake-up which could see them redefined as frontline family-support services.

The 78 district truancy services, based mainly on local authority boundaries, say their role has broadened beyond just picking up children who should be at school and delivering them to class.

Auckland City Truant and Alternative Education Services co-ordinator Karyl Puklowski said truancy officers who knock on the door of a student's home often find problems troubling the whole family.

"It could be there's no money, it could be violence, it could be lack of value for education, it could be lack of language, it could be that the student doesn't see the relevance of school and wants a job," she said.

"Once you have worked out the reason, that defines an agency that can help you out.

"If the young person is into drugs or alcohol, you involve drug and alcohol agencies; or if it's money, you involve budget advice; or a nurse if it's a health issue."

Truancy services are being reviewed as part of what Education Minister Anne Tolley described last week as "a fundamental rethink of [our] approach to student attendance, engagement and behaviour", which also included reviewing the future of alternative education centres and resource teachers of learning and behaviour.

An evaluation by consultants Martin Jenkins last year found that many truancy officers already provide a range of social services including giving food to families until they accepted the need to use foodbanks, reading official letters to illiterate parents and visiting students at school to encourage them to seek help from counsellors and other services.

"Nearly all truancy officers worked additional hours and/or flexible hours to ensure the needs of families were being met," the review found. It said the Government should "review resourcing to allow truancy management services to balance reactive and proactive aspects of their role".

A "truancy sweep" in the Mangere Town Centre on a recent mid-week morning illustrates the range of social problems that truancy officers uncover.

The first girl spotted by truancy officer Tai Marsters, 13-year-old Fatana Sanuwsi, told Mr Marsters that her classmates had gone on a school camp so she didn't have to be at school.

But her mother, Samira Bashir, said she had asked her daughter to come with her as interpreter for a meeting she had with a lawyer.

Another mother spotted with two children aged 5 and 12 said one had epilepsy and the other was waiting for an ear operation the next month.

Although nationally truancy peaks at high-school age, in Manukau the peak age is 6 to 8, where caregivers think it won't hurt to keep a child at home for a day or two.

Truancy officer Metiana Morehu said many parents thought such young children "can catch up later. In actual fact the building blocks for education and learning happen at those younger levels".

The Martin Jenkins evaluation praised a Manukau programme called "Every Day Counts", aimed at changing parents' attitudes to stepping in after just one day's absence instead of waiting for the usual three days.