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Attendance Management Plans (AMP)

Attendance Management Plans (AMP)

Regular school attendance fosters student engagement, achievement, and healthy peer connections.

The Government’s target is 80% of students attending school at least 90% of the term by 2030.

It’s a legal requirement for boards to take all reasonable steps to ensure students attend school (when it is open for instruction).

This includes having an Attendance Management Plan (AMP) and making it publicly available online.

Keep reading to learn more.

What is an Attendance Management Plan (AMP)?

To support an improvement in student attendance, all boards are required to have an AMP.

The plan must outline a strategy and process for the school to identify and respond to student absences, for the purpose of returning students to regular school attendance.

Regulation 5Bopen_in_new of the Education (School Attendance) Regulations 2024 states that your school’s AMP must do all of the following.

  • Set out the board’s overarching objectives and strategic priorities for improving attendance

  • Specify how the school identifies patterns of student absences, barriers to attendance, and the underlying causes of student absences

  • Explain how the board will monitor progress relating to student attendance

  • Describe the strategies, actions and interventions that the board will use at each of the thresholds (5, 10, and 15 days of non-attendance by a student in a term)

  • Contain a statement that each time a student reaches a threshold, the board will (through the principal) investigate, respond and record the action taken in relation to those absences (including where no action was taken and why).

When preparing its AMP, your board must take into account the Ministry guidelines on managing school attendance by using the Stepped Attendance Response (STAR)open_in_new framework.

This is to ensure your plan will improve student attendance by providing clear pathways to identify and address absences at each threshold.

The Ministry of Education has developed templates and guidanceopen_in_new to support you in creating an AMP or to review your existing plan.

What is the Stepped Attendance Response (STAR)?

The Stepped Attendance Response (STAR) provides a framework for actions that may be taken to prevent absences from escalating.

This includes utilising all available tools to ensure students attend school regularly.

STAR helps clarify that supporting a student in attending school regularly is a shared responsibility among the school, the student, parents/caregivers, and the Ministry.

Your board must use the same thresholds outlined in the STAR (5, 10, and 15+ days) to guide actions and responses and consider the activities in the STAR when determining the responses taken at each level of threshold.

While the thresholds are fixed, the actions taken at each level can be tailored to suit your school’s context.

How should we create or update our AMP?

When creating or reviewing an AMP, your board should scrutinise your school’s attendance data.

Specifically, identify attendance trends and confirm that student absences receive an appropriate response.

To help everyone understand your board’s expectations and the steps the school will take to support attendance, it’s important to consult with your community.

To support your attendance data review, the Ministry provides every school with a termly report called “Every Day Matters” at the start of the following term.

The Ministry’s website has more information about attendance reportingopen_in_new.

Once your plan is ratified, it must be made publicly available online.

Your board must review its AMP at least once every three years.

Questions your board could ask

  • Does our school have a clear plan for how staff will identify and respond to student attendance concerns?

  • Are we engaging with our school community when developing or reviewing our Attendance Management Plan (AMP)?

  • Does the principal provide our board with well-analysed reports on student attendance?

  • Do we ensure our school community is informed of the trends and patterns related to student attendance and absences?

  • Does our Annual Implementation Plan include actions we are taking to address any identified reasons for student disengagement with their schooling?

  • Is our AMP readily available to the public on our school website?

Templates, resources, and references

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Ministry of Education
Education and Training Act 2020
Other legislation