'Wagging', 'bunking off', 'playing hookey', 'flunking' - all different lingo for being truant at school.
It's become more of a problem in the wake of COVID-19 and the Government hopes a new NZD$74 million crackdown will fix the problem.
Education Minister Jan Tinetti has created 82 new Attendance Officer roles and given more resources to the Attendance Service.
But will it work? Is it enough?
Speaking with Lloyd Burr on Tuesday afternoon, the acting president of PPTA Te Wehengarua, Chris Abercrombie, said these initiatives are welcome but won't necessarily bring student absences to an end.
"There's no easy fix to the school attendance problem… It's an incredibly complex problem to deal with," Abercrombie said.
"One of the key things is making sure that we put the supports in at the top of the cliff, instead of the ambulance at the bottom.
"Attendance officers, while helpful, is the ambulance at the bottom.
Abercrombie said if he had some of the government's power, he would get rid of the key staff concerns in schools.
"We would make sure that there would be more guidance counselling support in schools," he said.
"We definitely want that support at the top so they don't end up being truant, so they don't end up having large unexplained absences because a kid who has chronic truancy is a lot of work and… it's not impossible, but it's definitely a lot of work."
When asked what an attendance officer's role is in getting students to school, Abercrombie said it can range from picking them up to getting them government support..
"It's about understanding the community that you're in," he said.
"That could be going to pick a kid up to bring them to school because they don't have any other way to get to school. It could be making sure they've got a uniform, to make sure they can come to school… Sometimes it is going to go knock on the door and say, 'hey, you have to get to school.'
"[Also] making sure they're getting the support they need, so maybe getting them in touch with other government services, etc.
"There's a huge range of things that the attendance officer could do."
Listen to the full interview between Chris Abercrombie and Lloyd Burr above.
You can also download the full interview on the Lloyd Burr Live podcast, and listen on the go.
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