Police and local shopkeepers have banded together to cut truancy rates in New South Wales.

The city of Bourke has launched a program which will see students with a legitimate excuse to be outside school given a card stating as such.

Students outside school without a card will be refused service in local shops and will have to explain themselves to police.

A majority of Bourke’s shopkeepers have agreed to the plan, Darling River Crime Manager Sergeant Mick Sullivan has told the ABC.

“We've been around and seen most of the shops in Bourke and asked them to get on board with this initiative and most of them, none of them have said they won’t,” he said.

“Most of them have agreed and put up posters in their shop windows.

He says the system will not be so rigid that urgent purchases are impossible, but it can still serve as an effective deterrent.

“All the shopkeepers will do is ask and if the kid says; ‘Oh, I was sick but I need something to eat’, we're just asking them to give us a ring and we'll come down and check out the legitimacy of it and it'll only be two seconds,” Sgt Sullivan says.

“If worse comes to worst the shopkeepers can just serve the child and let us know and we'll chase it up at a later date.”

The card system has reportedly been rolled out this week.