Posted by David Gledhill
 
Jane is a member of the School Attendance Team Lower Hutt Valley.
There has been a growing problem of poor attendance at school for several years, aggravated by the tribulations of Covid.  Jane is in charge of a team of three set up by the Ministry to address the problem in the Hutt Valley.  In many ways Jane is ideally suited to the role.  Born in the Hutt, educated at Otago University with a law degree and happily married for 28 years with four of her own children.  Jane and her surgeon husband have been fostering children for many years, with a special concern for pregnant teenagers.
There are 52 schools in her area and she and her team have a three year contract with a two year right of renewal.  She is notified of problems in several ways. The Ministry has a database of all enrolled children through which it can keep tracks on a child who leaves one school but does not enrol in another.  (This used to be a common way in which school age children fell out of the system), Schools can also generally refer a truanting child to them after three weeks absence, and after the school itself has tried and failed to bring them back in.  In addition to "ordinary" truancies there are currently 120 children in the Hutt Valley not enrolled in any school and Jane has one of her staff dedicated to contacting them.  When found they might be sent back to school, placed on correspondence or given early release or work experience if over the age of fifteen and a half.  Jane and her team also work closely with school guidance counsellors, remedial teachers and youth aid.  A normal day starts with two hours paperwork as early morning visits can be unhelpful, then visiting eight to ten houses.  Very often schools will have tried to make contact before but 80% of visits could be cold calling.  Jane does not want to be seen as threatening as most parents want what is best for their child and quite often she will be invited in. She will try to find out what the problem is, or rather what the problems are and sometimes all she has to do is provide information back to the school, and on occasions bringing the parents in to the school.  Mostly she is reieved  positively (she has only been shouted at once!) but she does take precautions, carrying a cell phone, ensuring other staff know her whereabouts, avoiding dogs, and aiming for the "sobriety window" of 12.00pm - 3.00pm.  She has found a number of issues ranging from mental health, foetal alcohol syndrome, anxiety, bullying, gambling, drugs and sometimes poor parenting where the parent has simply become controlled by the child, addiction to electronic games and on occasions principles of religion or Maori sovereignty.  She makes use of agencies such as City Mission, SuperGrans, Youth Aid and churches.  She finds most successes do involve parental input. She knows how Activity Centres and Alternative Schools can help but there are not enough of them and they have long waiting lists. Jane's aim is to have 90 - 95% attendance in the Valley and she feel she and her team are making progress.
Thank you Jane for making us aware of this problem of which mercifully many of us have little experience.  It is very good to know that at last the Ministry is making a real effort to address it.