In late 2010 the wording of the Frequent Absence Rule 6-7 was changed in the Ministry of Education Funding Handbook (2010 update) online to clarify the rule.  

It is helpful to have rules clarified to reduce confusion and potential cost later if it is found that you have misinterpreted any funding rule.

The intention of the new wording was to clarify what should happen when a child consistently does not attend for days or times when they are enrolled, for a period of three months. The intention was to make it clear that the enrolment would need to be changed for the fourth month if the frequent absences continued.

Here is a copy of what is stated in the Ministry of Education Circular 2010/12

The Resourcing Group in the Ministry are looking at how the wording may be further tweaked because the clarification has been questioned by some people who thought it might be a change in the rule.  And a further update may be made soon. 

For early childhood services requiring that children enrol for a set number of hours/days this may be a challenge to think through.  For example, a centre may require children to attend Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs for 6 hours a day but some families consistently attend on three of these days only.  Options include for example, allowing parents to have flexibility in the number of hours/days they enrol, or having two or more different hour/day options for families to chose and commit to using if they want to enrol at your service.  

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