More than 90,000 children miss two or three weeks of class each term, and they could be getting a knock on the door very soon.
This morning the government announced a $74 million attendance package with a focus on moderate truants.
Hours later the Education Ministry reported just 46 percent of children attended school regularly in the third term of last year, and 13 percent were chronically absent.
Here's our education correspondent John Gerritsen.
