"Unfortunately, with so many working parents, we find many children still turn up to school sick and therefore infect others."
Parents had financial pressures and it was difficult for those who didn't live near extended family to find support for children when they were sick, she said.
The national absence rate increased slightly last year on the previous one from 10.1 to 10.8 per cent, according to the Ministry of Education's Attendance in New Zealand Schools 2014 publication.
The attendance survey is a snapshot of school attendance data from one week in term two of last year.
The increase was driven by an rise in unjustified absences -- absences which are either not explained, or not explained to the satisfaction of the school.
The national "frequent truant rate", which measures students unjustifiably absent for three or more days in the survey week, also increased and was highest for students in Year 13 and for Maori students, according to the publication.
Unjustified absence rates at Northland schools were the worst for any region in the country last year.
Whangarei Girls' High School principal Anne Cooper said attendance had been steadily improving at the school over the last few years but unfortunately had dipped this year.
Most absences at the school were explained and the most common reason for absence was illness. This year had been particularly bad with a flu many people took a long time to recover from, she said.
Ms Cooper said parents would sometimes take their daughters on holiday during term time for a variety of reasons.
"Our staff are under no obligation to provide for students in this situation but most do when it is requested. However, it does add to teachers' already considerable workloads to provide work," she said.
Rotorua's John Paul College principal Patrick Walsh said illness was the main reason for absence at his school too. There was a high prevalence of influenza this year as the winter had been particularly cold, he said.
He encouraged students to take the day off when they were sick because they didn't learn well and they risked infecting others.
Mr Walsh said the school also had issues with parents taking their children on holiday during term time because they wanted to get cheaper flights.
Sometimes they asked whether teachers could spend more time preparing work for their children to take on holiday.
"Generally we say no, unless there's a good reason, because we don't think taking time out of school when they should be learning, to go skiing or for a holiday in the tropics is a good idea," said Mr Walsh.
Deputy principal of Cullinane College in Whanganui, Martin Bullock, said Maori attendance at the school had risen considerably.
There had always been a gap between the attendance of Maori and European students but that gap was now closing. Sometimes Maori students would be away for things like tangi and kapa haka competitions, he said.
"It's just a matter of working alongside family and monitoring them closely," he said.
Absence due to illness was always common in the winter period, he said.
Absences also resulted from parents taking children on holiday during term time. Mr Bullock said the school worked alongside parents to reinforce that it expected those students to be at school.
"We want the kids to be in class and learning and if they're not in class they're not learning."
However, staff knew things came up for families so worked with parents and made sure the students caught up when they returned to school, said Mr Bullock.
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