School attendance officers continue to crack down on kids skipping school across the Northern Territory.
Last year attendance rates for the whole of the NT were 73 percent, while Darwin’s attendance rate was 83.8 percent and Barkly saw the lowest at 43.9 percent.
The Northern Territory’s Minister for Education and Training, Jo Hersey, says she will doubled down on the Finocchiaro CLP Government’s commitment to get kids to school and hold parents accountable for truancy.
She has acknowledged the 2025 School Attendance statistics and the work needed to improve attendance.
“After 8 years of rapid decreasing attendance under Labor, we know we’re not going to turn it around in one year.
“Our School Attendance Officers do a great job in every corner of the Territory, and where they are working with communities, we are seeing increases in attendance.
“Timber Creek and Mataranka School for example had attendance increases of 21.6 percentage points and 10.2 percentage points in 2025.
“This shows School Attendance Officers partnering with and supporting Schools and families works and I look forward to seeing more partnerships like this in 2026.”
In 2025, School Attendance Officers conducted more than 1,000 patrols in shopping precincts, CBD’s and hot spots where youth are known to be during school hours, resulting in 1,398 compliance notices and 292 fines issued to parents who are not complying with the law and sending their children to school.
Of those, 679 compliance notices and 33 fines were revoked, meaning parents are listening and getting their children back to school.
While the front-line School attendance team works with children and families, there are a range of new initiatives introduced in Northern Territory Government schools to keep kids engaged in the classroom, these include:
Boosting Literacy and Numeracy through explicit teaching.
New Trade Technical Colleges through the phasing out of middle schools.
Aboriginal Liaison Officers in Schools.
$732 million committed in the school funding model for 2026, $46 million more than 2025.
Keeping and attracting teachers by moving more Teachers to permanent contracts.
Getting School Counsellors back in Schools, not centralised in Darwin.
