8. Question No. 8—Education (School Operations)CAMILLA BELICH (Labour) to the Associate Minister of Education (School Operations)Question No. 8—Education (School Operations)8. CAMILLA BELICH (Labour) to the Associate Minister of Education (School Operations): What feedback has she seen from principals and schools on the Government Attendance and Engagement Strategy?Hon JAN TINETTI (Associate Minister of Education (School Operations)): The Government has been working with schools and communities to turn around the decade-long decline in regular attendance. The collaborative approach to getting kids engaged and regularly attending at school has been well received by the sector. For example Kate Gainsford the chair of the Secondary Principals' Council highlighted this when she said The collective effort required to support parents caregivers and whānau in communities is acknowledged in the strategy. … strengthening local support for whānau is absolutely crucial to ensuring tamariki and rangatahi go to school."Camilla Belich: Why is listening to schools and principals important?Hon JAN TINETTI: In order to make meaningful change we need to draw on evidence about what works. The people best placed to provide that advice are the professionals and the experts in the sector. When we launched our comprehensive Attendance and Engagement Strategy we worked with the sector to set ambitious targets. Together we developed actions to respond to the impacts of COVID-19 and re-engage kids in education. We backed that with an $88 million attendance package to empower local solutions to meet our attendance target.Camilla Belich: What examples has she seen of the Regional Response Fund making a difference for schools?Hon JAN TINETTI: I've seen many examples on how the Regional Response Fund is enabling innovative ways to remove barriers to regular attendance. For example Tawhero School has reported utilising the Regional Response Fund to work with tamariki with severe anxiety and who are disrupted from learning stemming from COVID-19—a combination of physical activities alongside learning new strategies to work through mental health challenges that are getting in the way of their learning. This builds on evidence from the Urgent Response Fund after the first lockdown where addressing the wellbeing and mental health needs was critical to getting our kids back to the classroom.Camilla Belich: Can the Minister provide other examples of how principals are using the Regional Response Fund to improve attendance at their school?Hon JAN TINETTI: There are many and yes I can but there is one in particular that stands out for me. In the Nelson Marlborough and West Coast area Kāhui Ako have worked together to implement a bespoke plan to improve attendance outcomes for vulnerable learners including analysing school data engaging with social support workers and whānau connectors and breaking down barriers to attendance in enacting a back to school local campaign. I have full confidence in our principals and teachers to understand the needs of our young people and get them back and engaged in the classroom.Erica Stanford: Can she explain why despite the Urgent Response Fund at $50 million and the Regional Response Fund at another $40 million the numbers of students who are currently officially classified as chronically absent is still over 100000 children a number that has nearly tripled in the last five years?Hon JAN TINETTI: Yes I can. The data that shows that is the most official data and comes from term 2. In term 2 we know that that was attributable to the fact that New Zealand was at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. It does not take much to put young people into that chronically absent area. It is something that we have explained in the House before; it would be good if people could actually understand the data."