TRUANCY in Darlington schools breached council target figures last year.

And a "school pass" scheme could now be brought in to combat casual absenteeism.

Headteachers are to be asked for their views and it is hoped the system can operate from September.

This is just one of a raft of measures being considered in a bid to bring Darlington's school attendance rate into line with other areas.

The council's lifelong learning scrutiny committee will next week be told that the truancy figures continue to exceed national rates and those of neighbouring authorities.

However, absence rates did fall during last year's autumn term.

At the moment, the education welfare service has nearly 1,500 "open cases" of chronic truancy on its books.

Funding has now been secured in a bid to achieve targets for 2006.

The committee will hear that target figures for 2003-04 were 5.6pc in the primary sector and 8.2pc in secondaries. But actual absence figures were 6.1pc and 9.3pc respectively.

In all, 71,144 school days were missed in primaries and 91,391 in secondary schools.

"There are significant challenges around improving attendance at schools in Darlington," said the director of children's services, Margaret Asquith.

The "open cases" involve pupils whose attendance levels reach 80pc or below or when a child has ten consecutive days of unauthorised absence. At the moment there are 1,452 such cases.

Strategies to reduce absence have been formed and a package of support is given to all schools.

The strategy has three key strands - publicity, preventive working and performance monitoring.

Mrs Asquith said: "Absence figures for the 2004 autumn term show the rates fell in both primary and secondary schools compared to the whole year figures for 2003-04.

"But to bring our performance into line with that of similar authorities, it is important that this focus on improvement and challenge continues."

The autumn term figures were 5.75pc and 8.41pc respectively and the stretch targets for 2004-05 are 3.9pc and 5.7pc.

To support the strategy further, Mrs Asquith said the education service was planning use of a generic school pass system across Darlington.

"This will enable any pupil who is approached by an authorised officer during school time to produce a pass which authorises absence," she said.

"Headteachers will be consulted and it is felt this will be an effective tool in combating casual truancy."

Mrs Asquith said media support was important. "We need to publicise any initiatives which address poor school attendance and report on education-related prosecution and truancy blitz figures," she said.