Other major increases over the same time period include Auckland at 88 per cent and Waikato at 71 per cent.
Nelson, Marlborough and West Coast are the only regions to have seen a decrease in the number of non-enrolments - dropping by 60 per cent.
The Ministry of Education said there are multiple contributing factors in the increase of non-enrolled students last year - including the Omicron outbreak in term one and parental/family concerns surrounding students returning to school.
They also said if a transferring student was not enrolled at their new school within five days, they were considered non-enrolled.
Under the Education and Training Act 2020, all students are required to be enrolled in school from age 6 to 16, and to attend regularly.
Caregivers failing to enroll or ensure regular attendance may face prosecution.
The Government told Newstalk ZB, it is taking action to address attendance numbers, announcing in February it would invest nearly a $74 million Attendance Turnaround Package to address the issue.
The funding would include the establishment of 82 new attendance officers.
Acting Minister of Education Kelvin Davis said the 2022 Attendance Service redesign, and attendance and engagement strategy also aimed to improve the situation.
He added past Covid outbreaks, and students moving schools will also be contributing to the concerning statistics.
But National’s education spokeswoman Erica Stanford said the Government’s $74m investment into truancy services is “too little too late”.
“The answer to our truancy problem, right from the start, is at the top of the cliff, [it] is making sure kids are achieving at school,” she said.
“The Government have taken their eye off the ball in the last six years and now they are trying to patch it up at the bottom of the cliff with an ambulance of some money they are trying to throw at attendance.”
Stanford called the truancy package a “band-aid on a problem that is really a gaping wound”.
She said there are multiple factors involved in the attendance numbers, but attributes much of it to kids failing in school - with half not meeting curriculum standards for reading, writing, and math.
Meanwhile, South Auckland-based organisation New Zealand Blue Light - which supports disengaged school children - said it has so far seen none of the $74m investment.
Chief operating officer Brendon Crompton said their service works at the chronic end of the truancy scale.
“They talk about trying to reduce the issue and we’ve got the skills to do that. We’re just very short-staffed from what they fund us. We had 4500 referrals last year and the ministry funds us 12 staff members,” Crompton said.
“We know what works; we are in the coalface of the community. All our staff live in South Auckland, we know these families. I live in South Auckland myself so we live and breathe this on a daily basis and we could do a lot more work.”
But the Ministry of Education’s operations and integration leader Sean Teddy said while the majority of providers have been informed of their funding increase, Bluelight will hear from them in the coming days.
He said the funding will help with cost pressures and support an increased number of referrals.
“They will also receive funding to support non-enrolment cases that remain open for longer periods of time. This will allow them to be able to work more intensively to with students and their whānau to facilitate a return to education,” Teddy said.
