The use of truancy officers has boosted school attendance in Indigenous communities by an average of 14 per cent in their first month on the job, the Federal Government says.
Figures show an additional 604 students have shown up to class at Indigenous community schools across the Northern Territory, Western Australia and Queensland since the start of the school year.
Across 17 schools in the Northern Territory, attendance has risen by an average of 17 per cent.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion says it is the first step to boost Indigenous education.
"We have already made a significant inroad; at least we are getting them to school," he said.
"Now we have to systematically and methodically deal with other challenges."
The Federal Government has invested $28 million in its program to tackle truancy, which has seen the best results in remote communities.
"The reasons for the success in the [remote] communities ... is often the selection of the school attendance officers," Senator Scullion said.
"Obviously those people with more authority in the community, the better it works."
In some schools the rise in attendance has caused disruptions but Senator Scullion says children must be at school.
"It was much worse to leave kids to continue to be disengaged from the education system," he said.
There are four schools in the Territory where attendance has fallen since the program started.
Over the past five years, attendance at some of the target schools was often below 70 per cent.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott made increasing Indigenous school attendance a key government priority when making his annual Closing the Gap address earlier this month.
About 400 school attendance officers have been recruited nationally as part of a $28 million Commonwealth program aimed at communities across the Territory, Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia.