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Home > Our Schools > Parents as Partners > School Attendance

Every Day Counts emphasises the importance of children and young people attending school every day and provides schools and parents with tools they can use to promote full time school attendance.

Schooling is compulsory for children and young people aged from 6–17 years in Victoria unless an exemption from attendance has been granted.

Daily school attendance is important for all children and young people to succeed in education and to ensure they don’t fall behind both socially and developmentally.

Children and young people who regularly attend school and complete year 12 or an equivalent have better health outcomes, better employment outcomes and higher incomes across their lives. It is very important that children develop habits of regular attendance at an early age. 

Students are expected to attend the school in which they are enrolled, during normal school hours every day of each term, unless:

• there is an approved exemption from school attendance for the student, or
• the student is registered for home schooling and has only a partial enrolment in a school for particular activities.

There are a variety of resources available to encourage daily attendance and to help parents support their children who may be experiencing difficulties at school. School attendance posters and a parent brochure in English and other languages along with fact sheets and advice for parents who may have a child facing anxiety about school can be accessed from the DET website.

There is help at hand to assist parents to support their teenage son or daughter to maintain a daily routine and attend school regularly. The Victorian Department of Education (DE) information on Attendance – for both primary and secondary students – provide parents with practical ideas to help students fully engage in their learning and cope with anxiety.