School attendance has been sliding for more than a decade, with more than a million Australian students now missing significant classroom time. Governments have set ambitious targets to reverse the trend, but meeting them will require a fundamental shift in approach.

On any given school day in Australia this year, 11 per cent of children who should have been in class weren’t.

That’s not a blip. In 2014, that figure was seven per cent.

School attendance has been sliding for more than a decade, and the pandemic poured fuel on the fire. While attendance bounced back a bit after lockdowns ended, and 2025 has brought a small uptick, we’re still nowhere near where we were before COVID.

The amount of learning time lost is staggering. In 2025, students missed on average four and a half weeks of learning. From the first day of school to the end of Year 10, that adds up to more than a year of missed class-time for the average student.

Don’t think this is a problem confined to a small group of students on the margins. Only three in five Australian students now attend school regularly – that is, at least 90 per cent of the time. That translates to well over a million students who are missing out on the academic, social, and emotional benefits that come from showing up every day.

Students in government........

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