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  "description": "“The truth is that a lot of people want to get to school, but if you're a ‘won't’ rather than a ‘can't’, then we are going to throw the book at you.”",
  "path": "/parent-taken-to-court-as-seymour-ramps-up-school-truancy-crackdown/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-29T00:28:27.000Z",
  "site": "https://goodoil.news",
  "tags": [
    "Centrist",
    "Read more over at RNZ",
    "Receive our free newsletter here"
  ],
  "textContent": "Summarised by Centrist\n\n**The government is prosecuting at least one parent over a child’s chronic school absence, as Associate Education Minister David Seymour moves to enforce truancy rules more aggressively.**\n\nSeymour said the case shows the government is serious about using “coercive power” where parents fail to get children to school.\n\n“The truth is that a lot of people want to get to school, but if you’re a ‘won’t’ rather than a ‘can’t’, then we are going to throw the book at you,” Seymour said.\n\nThe Ministry of Education has been formally notified of 34 non-attendance cases.\n\nSeventeen were resolved before prosecution, mostly after parents re-enrolled their children, while 16 remain under active investigation.\n\nThe ministry says prosecution is a last resort and only follows attempts at support. It will not prosecute parents who are genuinely engaging with schools, or where absence is linked to chronic illness or disability-related health conditions.\n\nParents can be fined up to $300 for a first offence and $3,000 for a second or later offence.\n\nThe crackdown comes as term one attendance rose to nearly 70 per cent, the highest term one figure since 2020, but still four points below pre-COVID levels in 2019.\n\nSeymour says progress will require “sustained work”. For the government, the message is clear: chronic absence is no longer being treated as a private family matter when parents are seen as refusing, rather than unable, to get children into class.\n\nRead more over at RNZ\n\nReceive our free newsletter here",
  "title": "Parent taken to court as Seymour ramps up school truancy crackdown",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-29T01:31:31.874Z"
}