Education and Children's Services (Enrolment and Attendance) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 3 September 2025.)

Mr DIGHTON (Black) (17:21): The Education and Children's Services (Enrolment and Attendance) Amendment Bill makes modest but important changes to the act to strengthen the effectiveness of the current scheme for the enforcement of compulsory enrolment, attendance and participation of South Australian children at schools and approved learning programs.

Before I get into the detail of this bill, it is important to reflect on some of the challenges to the attendance of children and young people in our schools. Attendance at schools nationwide fell in the wake of the global COVID pandemic and have been slow to return to pre-2020 levels. According to ACARA, in Australia in 2024 the attendance rate for students in years 1 to 10 was 88.3 per cent, down slightly from 88.6 per cent in 2023. The student attendance level, which is the percentage of students at or above 90 per cent, was 59.8 per cent, down from 61.6 per cent. Student attendance rates and attendance levels have not returned to pre-COVID levels. In 2019, the national attendance rates were 91.4 per cent and the attendance levels were 73.1 per cent.

The COVID pandemic created significant disruption to teaching and learning and to student attendance, some forced due to the pandemic responses and some long term because of the disruption to teaching and learning and, arguably, home life processes. As a school leader during the pandemic, I saw firsthand this disruption. Online learning, as an example, was a significant challenge for our teachers and for our students. I remember the early days during the pandemic response of trying to train up our teachers in using Google Meet and Zoom. Some of them thought using PowerPoint was high technology, so you can imagine the challenges of them navigating those online meeting platforms. I do want to pay tribute to the many teachers who did a fantastic job in changing their pedagogies to suit online learning that took place during COVID.

Another example of the disruption to the school environment because of COVID was at one stage we were told we had to restrict the numbers on site. I remember us coming up with a plan that year 7s, 9s and 11s would be on site on certain days, and year 8s and 10s on other days. Those particular restrictions were quite extraordinary. Other restrictions that had an impact included the requirement for students to wear masks. I remember, in particular, a situation of teaching a particularly challenging year 11 class. I was teaching them RE (religious education). They were students who had chosen a particular pathway, which was not going to lead to academia, and so they were highly disengaged.

I remember the challenge of trying to get them to wear masks at that time. Certainly, it contributed again to attendance issues, but I think the other impact was that disconnection—not coming to school, not having that routine and not seeing their fellow students again created disruption which has led to issues throughout Australia in terms of school attendance. It is clear, therefore, that we need a response to support student attendance to return to those pre-COVID levels.

I am pleased to say that this government is doing that. Along with legislation in 2023, the state government established a specialist attendance team to tackle student absenteeism as a response to the trend of student disengagement. The state government has also invested heavily in anti-bullying initiatives—$50 million into mental health and allied health supports on site—and has banned mobile phones from schools to tackle social media harassment and violence in order to make our schools safer.

I actually led the change within my school to ban mobile phones—it happened before the state government did so—and the challenge of COVID was that all of a sudden students needed their phones, their devices, for online learning, which made it very difficult to then implement the ban again afterwards. But it is pleasing to say that our schools—particularly our public schools—are doing a great job of banning mobile phones, and the strategy of the government is having an impact.

As the Minister for Education announced earlier this week, attendance data released shows a third consecutive improvement in student attendance in public schools in 2025. This data shows an attendance rate at the end of term 2 of 87.6 per cent compared with last year's term 2 attendance rate of 85.9 per cent—a positive indication that the wellbeing investment in schools, and more opportunities to study VET in schools, is keeping students engaged, which is having an impact. These results come on top of South Australia's attendance rate in 2024 being higher than the national average for the first time since the COVID pandemic.

But more is needed to continue to improve attendance, hence this legislation. The Education and Children's Services (Enrolment and Attendance) Amendment Bill seeks to make changes:

requiring a written notice to be sent to a person responsible for a child before any proceedings are commenced for a failure to ensure their child is enrolled in or attending a school or an approved learning program—this will ensure that parents are afforded appropriate procedural fairness in any decision or potential prosecution;

clarifying the information that the chief executive can require from parents about their child including, for example, medical information or referrals for health services;

removing from the list of valid reasons a child can miss school that there is a risk of infectious or contagious disease—children who are medically compromised are already protected under provisions in the act, and the department will continue to promote and comply with SA Health guidance on the management of infectious diseases at schools;

reducing the time parents will have to explain why their child did not attend or participate from five days down to three days, which will bring the act in line with timelines to follow up a child's non-attendance in the procedure for government schools;

empowering authorised officers visiting homes to require information from parents, creating consistency as currently an authorised officer can only request such information when attending at residential premises but can require it when a child is in a public space at a time that they should be attending school; and

clarifying that authorised officers must take all reasonably practical steps to ensure a child's attendance—adding the word 'reasonably' helps make it clear that authorised officers are expected to do what is practical to make sure a child attends while retaining the focus on ensuring attendance.

The changes aim to address various issues that have been identified through efforts to enforce the current arrangements regarding student attendance and ensure procedural fairness for those parents who may be considered for prosecution. Ultimately, the aim of this bill, along with the act, is to support the increased attendance of children and young people in our schools.

In my experience as a former educator, I have seen firsthand the impact of student absence on students' academic, social and overall wellbeing. First, the academic impact is undeniable. Frequent absences lead to lower literacy and numeracy outcomes, reduced assessment achievement and persistent learning gaps. Even short periods of absence can disrupt the cumulative process of education, leaving students struggling to catch up. Over time, this can translate into, of course, lower graduation levels and diminished opportunities in the workforce. The data is clear that students who do not achieve their SACE have limitations in terms of their socio-economic outcomes.

I have also seen how absenteeism compounds behavioural issues and reduces classroom engagement. Missing school means missing academic work and falling behind, which leads to less engagement and greater levels of behavioural issues, which then leads to missing school and a continued spiral down.

It is not only academic achievement; there are also social and emotional concerns. Absenteeism can weaken the bonds between students and their peers, eroding the sense of belonging that is essential for healthy development. It isolates young people, undermines their confidence and often signals that there are underlying mental health challenges. Unfortunately, in my previous career, I have seen circumstances where consistent absenteeism led to complete disengagement from the school community altogether.

Of course, it is important to note that there are legitimate reasons why some children and young people are unable to attend mainstream educational facilities. There are a variety of reasons. This can include disability, behaviour, geographical isolation, mental health concerns, long-term illness, incarceration, attendance and other complexities. Non-mainstream education is a large part of ensuring students can remain engaged in education and finish their schooling, even if not in the traditional sense. Of the 174,000 students enrolled in South Australian public schools across a year, about 10,000 are engaged in non-mainstream programs, with more than 4,000 of those attending Open Access College.

I note that the Department for Education will undertake a review of non-mainstream schools, including an in-depth look at a range of alternative education options. The department has determined that there are a large number of children and young people with disabilities who are enrolling in home schooling and Better Behaviour Centres, so the review will consider whether or not there are common barriers that exist for young people with a disability to determine ways that mainstream education can support them.

I recently attended a Welcome All Families session in my electorate at the Trott Park Community Centre. They are a group run by Paula Kirk, who is a local resident. They are for students who are not attending the mainstream. Many of them are going to Open Access. The Welcome All Families session helps to support that socialisation that the students are missing out on. The review will be completed by the end of the year and is intended to ensure that the sites, services and programs outside mainstream education are delivering on the promise of quality public education for every child and young person.

Back to this legislation, I want to note that this bill was the subject of extensive public consultation, including through the YourSAy website, and there were strong levels of engagement. While the legislation has made some important but modest changes, the government will consider whether further changes are required, and that could include greater punitive approaches such as fines for parents who fail to enrol their child in school, fail to ensure they attend or fail to respond to reasonable requests for information.

Before I finish, I want to talk about the importance of schools working in partnership with parents. Certainly, my experience is that when that happens it leads to the greatest level of outcome for students. Like many educators, I have engaged with the academic researcher John Hattie through his Visible Learning research. His research found that the effect size of parental engagement on student achievement was 0.49, which demonstrates that parental engagement is a significant factor that leads to academic achievement.

When parents are actively involved in their child's learning through support, communication and encouragement, students tend to have a noticeably better academic outcome. In particular, the types of engagement are important, such as discussing learning strategies and progress, not just asking, 'Have you got any homework?' or 'What did you do today?' In fact, I remember John Hattie discussing that even asking, 'What did you learn today?' instead of 'What did you do today?' had a significant impact. That emphasis from a parent on learning was really important.

Not surprisingly, in terms of effect size in relation to student absence, the effect size for absence was minus 0.25, which represents that student absence—as we can all appreciate; we probably do not need research to understand this—has a significant negative impact on student achievement because, as we have articulated, it disrupts the continuity of learning and leads to gaps in knowledge and skills, and this compounds over time, especially in subjects that build sequentially, e.g. maths and literacy.

I commend this bill to the house because when we keep students in school we are not just improving grades, we are building futures, strengthening communities and safeguarding the wellbeing of the next generation.

Debate adjourned on motion of Ms Hutchesson.