The Associate Minister for Education says improved public health advice will help define what illnesses can keep kids off school.

As part of an attendance action plan, David Seymour has announced weekly attendance reporting and is proposing categorising the worst truancy with a traffic light system.

Minister David Seymour says the number of sickness-related absences has doubled in the last five years.

"I know we had Covid, but that's largely subsided. The number of people who don't attend for health reasons has stayed roughly the same."

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