Students in Belconnen and Tuggeranong are twice as likely to miss school as those attending schools in the inner south, according to a report released this week.
And, according to the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre analysis, children in central Belconnen were almost four times as likely to miss school as those in Deakin.
The Educate Australia Fair? report revealed areas of educational disadvantage throughout the ACT.
Overall, children in the 10 suburbs with the most educational disadvantage, measured on a range of domains, had a non-attendance rate of 10.4 per cent. The non-attendance rate in the top 10 suburbs was measured at 5.5 per cent.
Non-attendance was measured as how many days students attended school versus how many they should have attended.
The Canberra suburbs with the most educational disadvantage were Richardson, Charnwood, Giralang, Gilmore, Belconnen, Holt, Gordon, Kambah, Theodore and Isabella Plains.
The 10 suburbs with the least educational disadvantage were Deakin, Aranda, Kingston/Barton, Weetangera, Forrest, Chapman, Garran, Red Hill, Curtin and Hughes.
Children in the less advantaged suburbs were twice as likely to present as developmentally vulnerable in one or more areas, including health and wellbeing, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills and general knowledge.
The report authors noted the ACT had relatively little disadvantage compared with other states and territories. A number of similarities were noted between the top 10 and bottom 10 suburbs.
The most advantaged children in the Northern Territory were on par with the least advantaged of the ACT.
Education Minister Yvette Berry this week released the first discussion paper of her Future of Education project, a long-term community conversation aimed at solving issues of inequity.
"ACT students perform well when tested through national and international assessments. However, there is room for improvement," the report said.
"When differences in student characteristics and backgrounds are considered, the ACT's performance is less positive.
"Unacceptably, lower educational performance in schools is correlated with a higher proportions of students from a low socioeconomic background."
The discussion paper listed possible solutions to improving student outcomes as providing free healthy food, longer access to school grounds and better access to psychological and counselling support.
"There is lots of research and evidence about what high performing education systems do to achieve across many measures of success," the report said.
"The ACT community needs to identify the things that next need attention and the transformation that is required."