The NSW Government will introduce legislation to give more flexibility to the Education Department and courts in dealing with cases of school nonattendance.

The Minister for Education and Training, Verity Firth, said the aim of the legislation was to get children back to school by focussing on the causes of non-attendance and introducing a wider range of intervention options.

"The Education Department will be able to seek information on the causes of non-attendance and convene conferences of parents, education authorities and other Government and non-government agencies to help develop an attendance plan.

"These measures are designed to reduce the need to proceed to court action but for chronic cases that do end up in court, we've expanded the options available to magistrates.

"Courts will be able to order parents to attend rehabilitation programs or call in other relevant Government agencies to intervene," Ms Firth said.

"Previously, the only penalty available was a monetary fine, but these new measures will better serve the ultimate aim which is getting children back into school," Ms Firth said.

"The changes also support recommendations from the Wood Inquiry into child protection about strengthening approaches to ensuring students attend school."

In all cases, it would be up to magistrates to decide which of the options was best suited to the particular case.

Ms Firth said the Education Act Amendment (School Attendance) Bill complemented the Rees Government's changes to the school leaving age, which recently passed the NSW Parliament with unanimous support.

"Together with our ongoing investment to modernise the way our schools deliver education, this legislation will help us towards our goal of 90 percent of students completing high school by 2015."