Daily attendance registers

Education (School Attendance) Regulations 2024 require that all schools and kura:

• maintain accurate daily attendance registers for all students enrolled in the school
• use an approved attendance register.

Education (School Attendance) Regulations 2024 – New Zealand Legislation

Daily attendance registers are official documents. They record a school's roll number and the year level of students.

Boards must keep these roll records for 7 years.

Attendance registers must be kept as accurate as possible. Our resourcing auditors use them to verify a school’s roll return. Education Circular 2013/07 - Auditing roll returns has more details.

Circular 2013/07 - Auditing roll returns

Attendance rules

Under section 237A (Attendance records) of the Education and Training Act 2020, the Secretary for Education has published rules setting out administrative and procedural requirements relating to attendance records. These rules are complementary to the attendance regulations and include:

• Rule 1: The principal of a State school (other than a distance school) must make sure that attendance records are kept.
• Rule 2: The principal of a State school (other than a distance school) must use a Ministry-approved Electronic Attendance Register (“eAR”) unless exempt.
• Rule 3: The principal of a State school (other than a distance school) must use Ministry-approved attendance codes.

These rules are published in the New Zealand Gazette. 

Amendment–School attendance rules 2025 – New Zealand Gazette

Additional advice and guidance on the rules can be found below. 

How to use attendance codes

Our guidance provides definitions of attendance codes and examples of how to use them.