Guardian Australia data analysis shows school suspensions are increasing in most states. Students with disabilities are over represented
In just six months, Adam Barclay and Doreen Salon’s daughter Sophia* missed 44 days of year 1 through multiple suspensions and an exclusion. They are pictured outside their home in St Morris, Adelaide.In just six months, Adam Barclay and Doreen Salon’s daughter Sophia* missed 44 days of year 1 through multiple suspensions and an exclusion. They are pictured outside their home in St Morris, Adelaide.
In NSW, about 30,000 suspensions were given to students with disabilities in 2022, with 10,000 of these given to primary school aged students, and more than 2,500 to students in year 2 or below. South Australia has also recorded a jump in the number of suspensions it is giving students in public schools, with the figures increasing more than 10% between 2018 and 2022. It has refused a request to provide a breakdown according to disability status, but a 2020 report found the risk of suspension for students with disability or additional needs in SA was 3.1 times higher than for other students.
“Government departments cannot just say bad luck when they are sent home for that time and their education goes out the window.”, the data comes as no surprise. Their autistic daughter Sophia*, now seven, received her first suspension from an Adelaide primary school when she was just six years old. “It was very much a combination of the system incentivising that as a response. It’s a very blunt instrument, but it’s the only one they have got in some ways.
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