# 7 Million School Days Lost in Victoria

An episode of [Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1082244480), 2 Aug 2026, 15 min.

Audio: https://mgln.ai/e/187/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/fa326977-3de5-4283-9b8b-af3500c58607/b69b2795-5503-4de1-ac91-af460017906e/7cf90ae7-de6d-46cc-9bab-b48f0021eccf/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=a05f1702-0c0e-4b0f-8014-af460017907c

Seven million school days were missed in Victoria last year. Is this a sign of a growing problem, or are parents finally putting their families first? A new report has sparked fierce debate about school attendance. Should children ever miss school for a holiday, a family celebration or a mental health break? Dr Justin and Kylie Coulson unpack what the numbers actually tell us, why so many families are choosing term-time travel, and whether chasing perfect attendance comes at a cost. They explore what children gain from school, what they gain from time with family, and why the best decision isn't always the obvious one. If you've ever wondered whether it's okay to pull your child out of school, this conversation will give you plenty to think about. KEY POINTS • What the seven million missed school days really represent. • Why more families are travelling during school term. • The pressure schools place on perfect attendance. • How COVID changed the way many parents think about school. • What children can learn outside the classroom. • When missing school can be the right choice. • Why every family needs to weigh the trade-offs for themselves. QUOTE OF THE EPISODE "If you need to have some time off, if you want to take the kids out of school, do it." RESOURCES MENTIONED • Herald Sun report on Victorian school attendance. • Happy Families resources at happyfamilies.com.au. ACTION STEPS FOR PARENTS • Make school attendance your starting point, not an unbreakable rule. • Before taking your child out of school, ask what they'll gain from the experience. • Talk with your child's teacher if they'll miss important learning. • Don't let guilt make the decision for you. Consider your child's learning, your family's circumstances and what matters most. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:05] Speaker 1: Hello, Happy Monday. Welcome to the Happy Families Podcast. We're
[0:08] Speaker 1: so glad you're here. Today on the podcast, a Big Conversation,
[0:12] Speaker 1: a report recently in The Herald Sun says that Victorian
[0:17] Speaker 1: students are missing more than seven million days of classes
[0:21] Speaker 1: each year. Seven million days of classes every year because
[0:26] Speaker 1: parents are taking their kids on family holidays during term
[0:29] Speaker 1: or choose to keep them at home without quote unquote
[0:33] Speaker 1: school approval. Today, we're going to talk about what this
[0:36] Speaker 1: stat means right around the nation. What it means for teacher,
[0:38] Speaker 1: it's what it means for you as a parent, what
[0:39] Speaker 1: it means for your children, and is it ever okay
[0:42] Speaker 1: to take the kids out of school because they just
[0:44] Speaker 1: need a day off, because you need a day off
[0:46] Speaker 1: because Nana is having her eightieth birthday inter state and
[0:50] Speaker 1: this is a really big deal for the whole family.
[0:52] Speaker 1: Or maybe there's a funeral. We'll cover that and a
[0:55] Speaker 1: whole lot more in today's very Controversial Conversation. It's the
[0:59] Speaker 1: Happy Family's podcast. We're back in just a moment. Stay
[1:02] Speaker 1: with us. Hello and welcome to the Happy Families podcast,
[1:07] Speaker 1: where you get real parenting solutions every single day. It's
[1:09] Speaker 1: Australian's most downloaded parenting podcast. We are Justin and Kylie Coulson.
[1:14] Speaker 1: Before we get started, I need to highlight Kylie's got
[1:16] Speaker 1: this malingering thing. But it's not really a cold or
[1:20] Speaker 1: a cough, it's just a malingering err and am I
[1:24] Speaker 1: right in saying that you're a little bit twished today
[1:26] Speaker 1: and today's topic, as we've talked about it, you've got
[1:28] Speaker 1: a little bit cranky about it.
[1:30] Speaker 2: Yes, I did, captain cranky pants.
[1:33] Speaker 1: So today, let me go through some stats and we'll
[1:35] Speaker 1: see where this lands. I think this is really really interesting.
[1:38] Speaker 1: Victorian students missing more than seven million days of classes
[1:40] Speaker 1: each year. I haven't been able to access data for
[1:42] Speaker 1: the rest of the nation. Let's just say what does.
[1:44] Speaker 2: That actually equal? Because you know, you throw around these
[1:47] Speaker 2: big numbers and everybody goes, oh, but what does that
[1:49] Speaker 2: actually mean for each child?
[1:51] Speaker 1: All right, So two things on this. First of all,
[1:52] Speaker 1: we're only talking about public school kits, So it doesn't
[1:55] Speaker 1: include the private schools, the Christian schools, the grammar schools.
[1:57] Speaker 1: It doesn't include the independent schools. It doesn't it's only
[2:00] Speaker 1: the public schools. And what it equates to in twenty
[2:04] Speaker 1: twenty four it was sixteen point three million, which equates
[2:07] Speaker 1: to twenty five point five days per child. It's doubled
[2:11] Speaker 1: in about ten years now. This is really interesting because.
[2:15] Speaker 2: How much school did you miss?
[2:17] Speaker 1: I don't really remember. It was such a long time ago.
[2:19] Speaker 1: I'm officially that old. I wagged a lot of school
[2:22] Speaker 1: in my senior years because I was more interested in surfing.
[2:24] Speaker 1: But I'm pretty sure I kind of just went to
[2:26] Speaker 1: school every day when I was Yeah, I'm pretty sure
[2:29] Speaker 1: I did in primary school, in high school having a
[2:30] Speaker 1: day saying younger years, Yeah, it wasn't a thing. You
[2:33] Speaker 1: just went to school.
[2:34] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[2:34] Speaker 1: There was no I don't want to go or I
[2:36] Speaker 1: need a mental health day. There was no family holidays.
[2:39] Speaker 1: We just went to school.
[2:41] Speaker 2: Yeah. But I don't necessarily think that was a good
[2:43] Speaker 2: thing either.
[2:44] Speaker 1: It's already begun. Let's talk about that in a second.
[2:46] Speaker 1: I want to share one more statistic with you. According
[2:50] Speaker 1: to the Public Education System, most schools consider an attendance
[2:55] Speaker 1: rate below ninety percent to be poor. That is twenty
[3:00] Speaker 1: missed school days per year, so ninety percent. That's one
[3:02] Speaker 1: in ten. You miss one inten it's poor. That's if
[3:05] Speaker 1: you miss one day per fortnight, you are in the
[3:09] Speaker 1: poor category. Of school attendance.
[3:12] Speaker 2: But didn't you say the average kid was losing like
[3:16] Speaker 2: twenty five days, So that's that's twenty five point five. Yes,
[3:19] Speaker 2: So you're suggesting that every child who's attending a public
[3:23] Speaker 2: school is actually below substandard attendance.
[3:26] Speaker 1: That would be right, Yeah, twenty five point five days
[3:29] Speaker 1: per child is what's missed in public schools, and twenty
[3:32] Speaker 1: is the poor attendant. So, hello, Houston, we definitely seem
[3:36] Speaker 1: to have a problem here. In the article that was
[3:38] Speaker 1: in the Herald Sun, they cite twenty twenty four data.
[3:41] Speaker 1: Check this out. Nearly half of absences forty five percent
[3:44] Speaker 1: of absences we're a result of three things, travel, unexplained absences,
[3:52] Speaker 1: or parent choice for reasons not approved by the school.
[3:57] Speaker 2: And so what would be an unapproved absence?
[4:01] Speaker 1: Well, I think that'd be a bit of a principal
[4:02] Speaker 1: or headmaster lottery here. I don't actually know that there's
[4:05] Speaker 1: anything written down, but it might just the thing that
[4:09] Speaker 1: I'm struggling with. And I actually really want to support
[4:12] Speaker 1: teachers and principles on this, but I kind of chafe
[4:15] Speaker 1: a little bit at the thought that I would go
[4:17] Speaker 1: cap in hand to a principle and say I'm thinking
[4:19] Speaker 1: about doing this with my family. Can I please have
[4:20] Speaker 1: your permission?
[4:21] Speaker 2: Yea that I need permission to spend time with my child.
[4:24] Speaker 1: It feels a little bit icky. I guess. There was
[4:28] Speaker 1: a quote in the article from Associate Professor Paul Kinson
[4:30] Speaker 1: at the Strarian Catholic University. I quote, parents should stop
[4:33] Speaker 1: criticizing principles who reject their leave requests. And I thought, well,
[4:39] Speaker 1: don't ask the principal, just go.
[4:43] Speaker 2: Look. This conversation gets me a little bit frustrated because
[4:48] Speaker 2: I know my children better than anyone else, right, right,
[4:51] Speaker 2: And I also understand and know what my family as
[4:53] Speaker 2: a whole needs. Education is one part of my children's life.
[4:59] Speaker 2: It's not everything, right, But I also recognize that education
[5:03] Speaker 2: is important. Yeah, just like having a job is important
[5:07] Speaker 2: and being part of a team. It's important that you
[5:11] Speaker 2: kind of fulfill your obligations within those communities. But I
[5:17] Speaker 2: feel like when we start talking about families needing to
[5:22] Speaker 2: seek approval to do things that are important to the
[5:25] Speaker 2: family unit, we are now trying to support a system
[5:31] Speaker 2: that is actually not designed to support the family.
[5:34] Speaker 1: Right, So we're saying family comes second, is what you have.
[5:37] Speaker 1: There are a couple of examples that I'll give as
[5:39] Speaker 1: to why somebody might want to take the kids out
[5:41] Speaker 1: of school in the middle of term. Maybe dad is
[5:44] Speaker 1: a shift worker or mum is a shift worker. We
[5:46] Speaker 1: have a friend here runs a fire station. He's in
[5:47] Speaker 1: charge of a fire station, and his holidays are dictated
[5:50] Speaker 1: to him. He can come into his holidays for the
[5:53] Speaker 1: next how many years, but he doesn't get a choice
[5:55] Speaker 1: in when they are. They're simply this is when your
[5:58] Speaker 1: leave happens, and that's when you will take your holidays.
[6:01] Speaker 1: So he doesn't get to choose. Therefore, if he wants
[6:03] Speaker 1: to take a family holiday, then the kids just have
[6:05] Speaker 1: to be out of school because that's when his leave is.
[6:07] Speaker 1: Otherwise he's on holidays and the rest of the families
[6:09] Speaker 1: at work and at school, and he's.
[6:11] Speaker 2: We watched him have plenty of we want to do that.
[6:13] Speaker 1: Yeah, because sometimes they've said, well, we're not going to
[6:15] Speaker 1: go on holidays. Here, it looks like there's also issues
[6:18] Speaker 1: of maybe the family really needs a holiday and the
[6:22] Speaker 1: cheapest holiday or the best deal is in week eight
[6:25] Speaker 1: of term two, a week seven of term two, and
[6:28] Speaker 1: they just look at it and go, we can't afford
[6:30] Speaker 1: to go when we're paying full price. During peak, So
[6:32] Speaker 1: let's go in the off peak and make this holiday happen.
[6:36] Speaker 1: Or maybe there's a birthday or a funeral, or a
[6:39] Speaker 1: major family event or a.
[6:40] Speaker 2: Family tragedy that actually requires the family to kind of
[6:45] Speaker 2: be together for an extended.
[6:47] Speaker 1: Yeah, we went through that a couple of years ago.
[6:49] Speaker 1: On top of that, there are things like mental health days.
[6:51] Speaker 1: I think that one's arguably iffy. I think people are
[6:54] Speaker 1: using that pretty heavily, and we've advocated for it a
[6:56] Speaker 1: lot in the past. I know you're still pretty big
[6:57] Speaker 1: on it. I'm I'm not as big on it as
[6:59] Speaker 1: I use to be. There's school refusal, financial hardship, transport,
[7:04] Speaker 1: parents that aren't doing well, bullying, just to name a
[7:08] Speaker 1: few things. So here's my question. Is it ever okay
[7:12] Speaker 1: to just pull the kids out of school for recreational
[7:15] Speaker 1: reasons because there's a concert that they want to go to,
[7:19] Speaker 1: or because there is a holiday, or you want to
[7:21] Speaker 1: take a long weekend and head to the snow or
[7:24] Speaker 1: head to balley to get away from the cold. Is
[7:26] Speaker 1: it ever okay to just say, yeah, we're gonna have
[7:28] Speaker 1: seven days away because we need it, even those schools
[7:32] Speaker 1: on Is this there a topical question I'm actually asking you.
[7:35] Speaker 1: You're pretty fired up before we turn the mics on,
[7:38] Speaker 1: and I'd like the whole world to hear how you
[7:39] Speaker 1: feel about it.
[7:41] Speaker 2: Yes, yes, there is a case for it. I'm their mother. Yeah,
[7:46] Speaker 2: I get to decide entirely. It is entirely my decision
[7:51] Speaker 2: and yours to determine whether or not our family needs
[7:55] Speaker 2: to take a break.
[7:56] Speaker 1: Okay, I kind of agree with you. I do. I'm
[7:58] Speaker 1: not sure that I feel as strongly about it as
[8:00] Speaker 1: you do, and I think there are a whole lot
[8:01] Speaker 1: of other considerations that need to come into play. But
[8:03] Speaker 1: I think that.
[8:04] Speaker 2: Any I think that any parent who is trying to
[8:08] Speaker 2: juggle life is already aware of the nuances around it.
[8:13] Speaker 2: There are not too many parents that I talk to
[8:16] Speaker 2: that just throw caution to the wind and make a,
[8:19] Speaker 2: you know, like a random decision on a Thursday to
[8:21] Speaker 2: take their kids out of school. These decisions usually take
[8:25] Speaker 2: time and deliberation over that the best time to take
[8:29] Speaker 2: their child out of school because they've got exams coming up,
[8:33] Speaker 2: or they're in the middle of a really important part
[8:36] Speaker 2: of term that requires them to be their full time.
[8:38] Speaker 2: Like every time I have a conversation with parents about
[8:42] Speaker 2: about these kinds of things. It's not clear cut. There
[8:45] Speaker 2: are so many things that they're taking into account.
[8:48] Speaker 1: So I would be suggesting the following. The age of
[8:50] Speaker 1: your child matters, the time of term matters, how often
[8:53] Speaker 1: you're doing it matters. What they're missing matters. If they
[8:58] Speaker 1: miss fractions, then fractions become hard for them forever unless
[9:04] Speaker 1: they are able to do the makeup work when they
[9:06] Speaker 1: get back.
[9:07] Speaker 2: And I'm going to push back on that. When you
[9:09] Speaker 2: understand and know the kind of the programming and the
[9:13] Speaker 2: way things are structured and learning, kids are relearning the
[9:17] Speaker 2: same thing in a school system over and over and
[9:21] Speaker 2: over and over again.
[9:22] Speaker 1: Well that kind of stops on my next point, and
[9:25] Speaker 1: that is that if you're a teacher and you have
[9:26] Speaker 1: to keep on teaching the same thing over and over
[9:28] Speaker 1: again because kids are away.
[9:29] Speaker 2: That's the curriculum, that's the way it's designed.
[9:32] Speaker 1: Okay, well, after the break, let's talk about why there's
[9:35] Speaker 1: been such a surge in the last ten years of
[9:38] Speaker 1: parents taking their kids out of school for a whole
[9:40] Speaker 1: lot of non approved reasons, and what we need to
[9:45] Speaker 1: take into account if we want to get this right.
[9:47] Speaker 1: Stay with us. We're back. This is the happy Family's podcast.
[9:57] Speaker 2: So you've suggested that absenteeism has doubled in the last
[10:01] Speaker 2: ten years, right, And we've acknowledged that when you and
[10:05] Speaker 2: I went to school, it was just the dune thing
[10:07] Speaker 2: like parents, parents just send their kids to school. Has
[10:12] Speaker 2: COVID had anything to do with the numbers that we're seen,
[10:15] Speaker 2: I reckon it has.
[10:17] Speaker 1: So the research indicates that there's been a seventy one
[10:21] Speaker 1: percent jump since twenty twenty. Okay, so one seventy one year.
[10:26] Speaker 1: So it was already going up from mid twenty ten's
[10:29] Speaker 1: like twenty fifteen ish was already going up, But since
[10:31] Speaker 1: COVID seventy one percent, Like that's just an enormous jump.
[10:35] Speaker 2: You think about everything that was said during COVID and
[10:38] Speaker 2: how families experienced. For a lot of families, it was
[10:42] Speaker 2: it was a really painful experience. And then there was
[10:45] Speaker 2: a lot of families that kind of like, we're never
[10:47] Speaker 2: going back to the way we lived life before this.
[10:50] Speaker 1: Yeah, I think most people have gone back to how
[10:51] Speaker 1: they lived life.
[10:52] Speaker 2: No, but I was going to say, we've had those conversations,
[10:55] Speaker 2: right with There's been this learning that took place as
[10:58] Speaker 2: we recognized that so many of the things that we
[11:01] Speaker 2: placed major importance on were not actually as important as
[11:05] Speaker 2: we thought they were. And yes, I think that for
[11:07] Speaker 2: most families we have reverted back. But is this a
[11:11] Speaker 2: reflection of that learning and the recognition that there needs
[11:15] Speaker 2: to be a better balance in life.
[11:17] Speaker 1: Maybe so remote learning that kicked off during COVID. We
[11:21] Speaker 1: just didn't do it before then. It was not a thing, But.
[11:24] Speaker 2: I don't think families had the finances to be able
[11:27] Speaker 2: to do that for the most part.
[11:30] Speaker 1: Regardless, remote learning became a thing during COVID, And I
[11:32] Speaker 1: think what it actually said to a generation of parents
[11:33] Speaker 1: is that school can be kind of optional ish, like
[11:36] Speaker 1: you can catch up lady, you can do stuff online.
[11:38] Speaker 1: There are workarounds for almost everything. And COVID kind of
[11:42] Speaker 1: taught a generation of families that you can do that.
[11:45] Speaker 2: Well, there's multiple pathways like that. That is a common
[11:48] Speaker 2: discussion within schools.
[11:50] Speaker 1: Right And if you can do the work on a
[11:54] Speaker 1: laptop at the kitchen bench, then how sacred is a
[11:57] Speaker 1: tuesday often in the classroom. Really we can catch up,
[12:00] Speaker 1: we can talk to a friend, we can talk to
[12:02] Speaker 1: the teacher, we can google online if we get stuck.
[12:04] Speaker 1: And if your kids are in primary school, especially We've
[12:07] Speaker 1: talked to so many educators school said, yeah, kids can
[12:09] Speaker 1: kind of miss most of primary school and they're going
[12:11] Speaker 1: to be okay. As long as they can read, write,
[12:12] Speaker 1: and do maths, they'll be fine. Now, I'm not diminishing
[12:16] Speaker 1: the importance of school. I'm not saying education doesn't important,
[12:19] Speaker 1: doesn't matter. It obviously does. And there is some data
[12:22] Speaker 1: that says that literally every day missed, every day missed
[12:26] Speaker 1: is associated with achievement dips. Right, So the data certainly
[12:30] Speaker 1: points to school attendance being.
[12:31] Speaker 2: But achievement dips in what.
[12:35] Speaker 1: On your grades?
[12:35] Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, but where does that actually sit in a
[12:40] Speaker 2: child's wellbeing?
[12:41] Speaker 1: And that goes back to the big question. I think
[12:42] Speaker 1: that's why parents are saying, no, we need a holiday,
[12:44] Speaker 1: We're going to take them out. No, it's cheaper and
[12:46] Speaker 1: we can. We should go on the holiday in week six.
[12:49] Speaker 1: That's when it works because that's when we can get
[12:51] Speaker 1: time off. That's when it's off peaks, so we don't
[12:53] Speaker 1: have to pay as much. And I think that's kind
[12:55] Speaker 1: of what's really going on in this data. So what's
[13:00] Speaker 1: take home message here? Because we need to wrap it up.
[13:02] Speaker 1: I don't know that there is a really strong one
[13:05] Speaker 1: that we can advocate without making half the world. Hey
[13:08] Speaker 1: this anyone in education. But Kylie's suggestion, I'm going to
[13:12] Speaker 1: just kyler suggestion is if you need to have some
[13:16] Speaker 1: time off, if you want to take the kids out
[13:18] Speaker 1: of school, do it. Am I reading that right? Is
[13:19] Speaker 1: that what you're saying?
[13:20] Speaker 2: You're reading that right? I'll own right.
[13:22] Speaker 1: And I'm kind of right there beside you because if
[13:24] Speaker 1: you're going on a holiday, I need to go with you.
[13:26] Speaker 2: Well, I need your credit card to leave.
[13:28] Speaker 1: What do you reckon? We're gonna post about this on
[13:30] Speaker 1: social media and share our thoughts there. We'd lovely to
[13:33] Speaker 1: jump onto our Facebook and Instagram page and tell us
[13:36] Speaker 1: what you think right or wrong? Should we or shouldn't we?
[13:39] Speaker 1: Do school attendance matter that much? Is it okay to
[13:42] Speaker 1: have a term time holiday? Let us know on socials.
[13:46] Speaker 1: The Happy Families podcast is produced by Justin Rulin for
[13:49] Speaker 1: and Bridge Media, with Mimhammond's providing our additional admin support.
[13:53] Speaker 1: If you'd like more in foto make your family happy,
[13:55] Speaker 1: visit us at happy families dot com dot au. Tomorrow
[13:58] Speaker 1: on the pod, we answer it t question about what
[14:01] Speaker 1: to do when your kiddos have no friends in the
[14:03] Speaker 1: neighborhood or the other kids are excluding them, and later
[14:07] Speaker 1: in the week a conversation with scholar Nicholas Epley about
[14:11] Speaker 1: how we've become a little less social and how his
[14:14] Speaker 1: research shows that if we could become a little more social,
[14:17] Speaker 1: it would make a huge difference in our lives and
[14:19] Speaker 1: the lives of our kids. Back tomorrow, talk to you
[14:22] Speaker 1: that

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