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# Parent taken to court as Seymour ramps up school truancy crackdown
- URL: https://goodoil.news/parent-taken-to-court-as-seymour-ramps-up-school-truancy-crackdown/
- Published: 2026-04-29T00:28:27.000Z
- Updated: 2026-04-29T01:31:31.000Z
- 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.”
- Author: Centrist
- Tags: News

Summarised by [Centrist](https://centrist.nz/?ref=goodoil.news)

**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.**

Seymour said the case shows the government is serious about using “coercive power” where parents fail to get children to school.

“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.

The Ministry of Education has been formally notified of 34 non-attendance cases. 

Seventeen were resolved before prosecution, mostly after parents re-enrolled their children, while 16 remain under active investigation.

The 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.

Parents can be fined up to $300 for a first offence and $3,000 for a second or later offence.

The 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.

Seymour 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.

[**Read more over at RNZ**](https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/593534/parent-prosecuted-over-child-s-school-absence-as-part-of-government-s-truancy-crackdown?ref=goodoil.news)

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