Attendance codes for New Zealand schools

Background
Since 2008, Synergetic has been used to meet the New Zealand Ministry of Education (NZ MOE) attendance and absence requirements.
Either Synergetic or SynWeb can be used by teachers to record student attendances. See:

Class attendance in this manual
Class attendance in the SynWeb Attendance and absence events manual.

Attendance and absence codes
The following attendance and absence codes apply to New Zealand schools.

Code	Reason	Description	In class?	Audit code	Truancy code	Half day calc
?	Unknown reason (temporary)	Temporary code used when the reason for a student’s absence is initially unknown. This will be updated once the reason is confirmed.	No	U	U	A
A	Alternative provision	Student is present in a Ministry approved alternative provision, such as a teen parent unit, alternative education, secondary-tertiary program, health school or activity centre.	No	N	P	P
D	Approved external appointment	Student is present but has a medical appointment which is unable to be scheduled outside of school hours (e.g. doctor or dentist and includes travel time) or is participating in court proceedings.	No	J	J	P
E	Explained but not approved	Student is absent and the reason provided does not meet the school’s policy for a justifiable absence (e.g. a parent states their child didn’t want to attend sports day).	No	U	U	A
G	Holiday during term time	Student is absent due to a holiday taken.
J	Explained and approved	Student is absent due to explained and approved reasons (e.g. family emergencies, bereavement, representing in national / cultural events, approved exemptions, or accompanying parents on overseas diplomatic / military postings).	No	J	J	A
L	Late to class	Student is late to class. Schools set the threshold for lateness (e.g. 10 minutes) in their school policy.	No	P	P	P
M	Illness / Medical absence	Student is absent due to illness or medical reasons, including mental health-related absences (e.g. anxiety).	No	J	J	A
N	Present but out of class	Student is present but out of class due to an on-site school activity (cultural or sporting event), internal appointment, temporary removal from class, or time in the sickbay.	No	S	P	P
P	Present	Student is present in class. This includes supervised dual tuition with Te Kura.	Yes	P	P	P
Q	Board approved offsite learning	Student is present in Board-approved off-site learning, including courses, school-organised activities, and work experience.	No	S	P	P
T	Truant	Student is absent without explanation or permission from a parent / caregiver (e.g. skipping class)	No	U	U	A
U	Stood down or suspended	Student is absent due to formal stand down or suspension. This code applies to the period of the stand-down or suspension, excluding the day it was imposed.	No	J	J	A
V	Unsupervised exam study	Student is present in an examination or unsupervised study where the student is on-site.	Yes / No	S	P	P
X	Exam leave	Student is absent studying offsite preparing for exams. NOTE: Time allocated to this code is not included in Ministry attendance calculations.	No	S	J	A

The following codes were inactivated in Dec 2024 for 2025:

Code	Reason
I	Internal school appointment
R	Removed from class
S	Sickbay
C	Justice Court proceedings
F	Off-site class / course / distance learning
W	Work experience
K	Teen Parent Unit
Z	Secondary-Tertiary Program
H	Health camp / health school / residential school
Y	Activity Centre
O	Justified overseas posting

For more information:

2025 - Attendance code tree TeMahau v11.pdf
See luAbsenceType lookup table in the Synergetic System maintenance manual. These codes can be loaded using the NZMOE external system codes. See Loading lookup tables for external systems in the Synergetic System maintenance manual.

Audit codes
The following audit codes apply to New Zealand schools and are used for audit resourcing.

Audit code	Description
S	Student is not in class but is on a legitimate school-based activity.
J	Student is not in class but the absence is justified (Ref 1998/48 Circular).
F	Student is not in class but is in an approved environment for which the school is entitled to be funded with the required supporting documentation.
U	Student is not in class and the absence is unjustified.
P	Student is present for tuition in the class.
N	Student is on the school roll but is funded somewhere else.

Truancy codes
The following truancy codes apply to New Zealand schools and are used for truancy reporting.

Truancy code	Description
J	Justified absence.
U	Unjustified absence.
P	Present.
O	Overseas holiday.

Half day calculation codes
The following half day codes apply to New Zealand schools and are used for:

attendance rate calculation and reporting
alerting the school should a student's unjustified absenteeism reach a certain number of half days.

Half day calculation code	Description
A	Marked as absent based on certain absence codes that apply to the student's class on a given day.
P	Marked as present based on certain attendance and absence codes that apply to the student's class on a given day.