This policy brief finds that school attendance in Australia is a big and growing problem. Federal, state, and territory Education Ministers have committed to getting school attendance back to pre-pandemic rates by the end of the decade. This analysis shows that there is a long way to go. 

Hitting this target will require a fundamental rethink of how school attendance is prioritised in Australia. New approaches – by politicians, principals, parents, and the wider community – are needed to encourage attendance and overcome barriers to going to school. England shows where to start.

The brief proposes that governments should take five key first steps.

1. Launch a public campaign explaining why attending school is so important.
2. Overhaul the way school attendance data are collected and reported.
3. Identify schools with strong attendance records and spread their methods to other schools.
4. Give parents better health advice on when their children should stay home – and when they should go to school.
5. Make school attendance an urgent, whole-of-government priority.

Key findings

• On a typical school day in Australia, about 11% of students who should be at school are absent.
• About 40% of students – more than 1.2 million – miss at least one day of school every two weeks.
• Since 2018, attendance has fallen in 96% of Australia’s schools.
• The biggest factor driving increased absence is illness.