The number of pupils skipping school in Wanganui and the Manawatu is dropping, a new report shows.
Wanganui and Manawatu's school truancy rate dipped to 8.5 per cent last year - 1.7 per cent lower than in 2011 and 1.6 per cent lower than the national rate.
According to the annual Ministry of Education attendance survey, released last week, a third of the absences were unexplained.
More than 7880 students are currently enrolled at Wanganui schools, 60 per cent of whom are at primary school.
Wanganui City College principal Peter Kaua, whose school runs the local truancy service, said more kids were coming to school instead of ditching class.
"What I've noticed in the past couple of years is that Wanganui schools have got a lot better at reporting the numbers of kids who are not coming to school throughout the sector."
There was a clear link between attendance and achievement, and the truancy office had been doing "outstanding" work helping Wanganui to take more ownership of students who weren't attending.
However, there were still cases of "parent-condoned" truancy - where kids were kept out of school for holidays or family reasons, he said. "You'll get parents who are keeping kids home to look after younger kids."
The attendance survey gathered information from 1950 state and state-integrated schools on student attendance over a week in June last year.
The total national absence rate last year was 10.1 per cent, or about 73,500 students each day. About 17,500 of those students were away from school without justification - a rate similar to that of previous years.
Truancy peaks on Fridays and Mondays, as do "justified absences", the report shows.
Schools are also struggling with "parent-condoned truancy", including parents pulling kids from school to take advantage of cheap overseas holiday deals.
Principal Youth Court Judge Andrew Becroft said not attending school was a "massive risk factor".
"Apart from being male, the single biggest characteristic of young offenders we see in the Youth Court, is that they're disengaged from mainstream - and often all - education."
If there was a "magic bullet" to reduce youth offending, it would be keeping all young people involved in school until their 17th birthday, he said.
The ministry and schools had a "significant sea change" in attitude and were making more of an effort to retain students.
This had contributed to "record low" numbers of young people being apprehended by police and appearing in the Youth Court, Judge Becroft said.
Parents can be prosecuted if their child is away from school without good reason.