Truancy: Are parents sending the right message?

BY CHARLES ANDERSON

Parents can be a student's worst enemy when it comes to making excuses about why their child is not at school.

Waimea College and Nayland College have an automated computer system which sends text messages to parents asking them to explain why their child is not at school.

Parents can reply to the messages to confirm if their children are legitimately away from class, or if they are just skiving off.

Waimea College principal Larry Ching introduced the text response system last year and said it had made a difference in student attendance. Beforehand, the college had 85 per cent attendance and now it was 90 per cent.

However, Mr Ching said there were a small number of parents causing concern with the messages they sent back to the school.

"There are two versions of the bad stuff, firstly the 'too bad it's not my problem to deal with' and secondly the 'how the hell would I know if they were at school or not'."

He said despite volunteering their cellphone number to receive notifications, sometimes parents did not believe the text message about their child's absence and would then send a message to their child, who would claim to be at school.

"But how would they know whether they were in school or not?"

He said they received small numbers of responses that were "totally ridiculous". These ranged from "I have kept him at home to mow the lawns" to "Don't text again, I'm sick of hearing that she's not there".

Mr Ching said generally the system worked. "It's the rapid response of it all. If we were relying on a paper trail or telephone it takes a lot longer especially if parents are at work."

The system cost the school 8 cents a text and costs a few thousand dollars a year to run but Mr Ching did not know how many texts would have been sent out in the past year.

Nayland College has used the system for about 18 months. Deputy principal Trevor Olley said it had worked well on casual truancy and, although the school occasionally received negative text replies from parents, they were far outweighed by the positives. "The ones we get that are not positive are usually parents crying out for help."

Mr Olley said the system worked because if there were issues with parents struggling to deal with their child, it came through in the tone of the text and the school could follow it up and offer help.

"It is all about communication and keeping the channels open with parents. The more we can communicate, the better it works."

Education Minister Anne Tolley has demanded action on truancy after officials admitted they had little or no idea how many thousands of pupils cut class each day. She has instructed ministry staff to start surveying schools next month to gauge national truancy rates. The last survey in 2006 showed up to 30,000 children were absent each week.

Nelson College headmaster Gary O'Shea said the school was considering the text response system for next year.

TEXT RESPONSES TO WAIMEA COLLEGE

I have kept him at home to mow the lawns

His sister was bringing him to school in the car; she must have got tired of waiting for him

I've told the little sh*t to gt dwn ther strait away

Dnt text again, I'm sick of hearing tht she's not thre

Get tht f***n washing in off the line and get down to school [sent from parent to the school by mistake instead of to the child]

Swimming sports are on and she doesnt like swimming [Swimming sports are entered by choice, not compulsory]

- © Fairfax NZ News