HUNDREDS of children have been found out of school in one of the biggest national truancy sweeps ever.

Every local education authority (LEA) in the country has taken part in the month-long scheme to ensure youngsters attend school.

In the North-East and North Yorkshire, more than 650 children have been stopped in town and city centres, parks and shopping centres and have been questioned since the sweeps started on February 28.

The results, which are being sent to the Department for Education and Skills, show one in three children caught were truants. In some areas of the North-East, two-thirds of truants were with an adult who was condoning their absence.

In Darlington, truancy figures recently exceeded council targets, and the authority is considering bringing in a school pass scheme to combat the problem.

There were 71,144 days missed through absence in 2003/2004 in primary schools and 91,391 days in secondary schools in Darlington borough. The council carried out one sweep last month, which found eight out of 36 pupils questioned were out of school without authorisation.

In Stockton, 40 per cent of those questioned outside school were truanting, and 63 per cent of those were with an adult. In Middlesbrough, 16 per cent of those stopped had no reason to be off school.

In County Durham, education officers and social workers stopped 169 children, 77 of whom did not have a valid reason for being absent from school. About 40 per cent of these children were with an adult.

Officers in Hartlepool carried out 12 sweeps, during which they questioned 128 children. Of those, 52 were playing truant -two thirds accompanied by an adult.

In North Yorkshire, 86 children were stopped, just under half were truanting, and few were with an adult.

A North Yorkshire County Council spokesman said: "We will write to all the schools and all the parents, whether the child had a valid reason for being off school or not."

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council stopped 27 pupils, and only one was truanting.