Council chiefs are zeroing in on a hard core of Perthshire school truants who are skewing league table results.
A strategy to crack down on youngsters who frequently skip classes has been unveiled by Perth and Kinross Council.
Although attendance at secondary schools and primaries across the region is generally very high an average of around 93.5% for 2012/13 the local authority said there is a minority of children who continue to play truant, sometimes unnoticed by school staff.
In a recent report, the council’s executive director John Fyfe said: “It is recognised that there is a cohort of pupils whose individual attendance falls below the average. There is room for further improvement to address these specific cases.”
A series of measures was backed by members of the council’s audit committee.
The three-point strategy is aimed at ensuring that procedures are being put in place to monitor and manage school attendance levels.
As part of the plan, council officials have issued reminders to head teachers about their responsibility to ensure all staff are accurately recording the pupils’ roll.
In secondary schools registration has not always been carried out on a period-by-period basis and this has led to inaccurate class attendance figures being logged.
Quality improvement officers have also been given the task of assessing the arrangements that are in place.
After their evaluation they will be asked whether a wider review is needed.
The computer system used by schools to record absences, known as Seemis, will also be investigated by council IT workers.
They will be asked to consider if any alternative set-ups would be better after a recent study found it was “subject to intermittent failures”.
Perth City South councillor Willie Wilson welcomed the latest report, which proposes a review in December.
“Whatever we do, we have to support teachers and our education service,” he said. “It’s vitally important that kids attend school, otherwise they simply won’t be educated.”
Committee convener Barbara Vaughan said: “The real dangers and risks lie with incidences when neither the school nor the parents know where their children are.”