Principals spoken to by RNZ said two-and-a-half years of Covid-19 disruption had left many young people short of the motivation and credits they needed to get their NCEA qualifications.
Schools close for holidays at the end of the week and principals are worried that severe disruption from winter illnesses and Covid-19 will be even worse when they reopen.
Fed up with students not turning up, an Auckland college has hired attendance navigators and taken out radio ads to try get kids into the classroom.
New PPTA numbers show 60,000 students are missing at least three days of school every fortnight and nearly 40 percent of students are not attending regularly.
The government has announced $88 million in funding to try and tackle what some are calling a truancy crisis.
But Ōtāhuhu College's Principal says the funding alone isn't enough, and some of his school's previous pleas for help have fallen on deaf ears.
Nick Truebridge and cameraman Nick Monro have the story.