250 kids wag school each term

Merania Karauria | 3rd March 2010

 Wanganui's truancy officers are not in the business of brat-catching.

Instead, Joff Latus and Kay Kotuhi say their truancy service is all about building bridges and helping kids stay in school. And that's the service they have provided for more than 250 truants from local schools each term in the past year.

Survey results released yesterday reported that throughout New Zealand about 30,000 children wagged schools on any given day.

While Education Minister Anne Tolley said the figure was "absolutely outrageous", Wanganui's truancy officers said their work at the local coalface was getting results.

"This was not about brat-catching," Mr Latus said. "We're not social workers and we're not the police but we are a great resource for other agencies."

The officers said their work was in response to referrals from Wanganui schools.

"There's a process we go through when students have poor attendance, and if the schools aren't getting any traction, we come in and support them."

Students weren't in school for  many reasons: situations at home, peer pressure, bullying, school work or health problems. Sometimes  the issues  were obvious, Mr Latus said, and their job was to break down barriers and manage the issues.

Last term the service had 220 referrals from schools and during the year  250 referrals a term from schools, parents and the community.

"The truth is that if kids stayed at school they'd have better outcomes. By the time kids get to intermediate school they are out of their depth if they are not actively involved in school. Then everything is beyond them."

Mr Latus said  many parents had bad memories about school, but the landscape had changed and schools wanted to accommodate students.

"We want to bring kids back into school and we want to keep them there, but you have to fix the problem of why they don't want to be there in the first place."

School staff  nurtured  students and were creative and  flexible.

The officers were also on a management group with representatives from all schools, Whanganui Police, the  Ministry of Education and social services which  met each  term.
 Mrs Kotuhi said they  also engaged with Whanganui iwi.