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Research shows disability is common factor in school suspensions

New research has found evidence of Queensland students from priority equity groups being unfairly suspended from school. The study is published in The Australian Educational Researcher.

Suspension rates are disproportionately high for First Nations students, students with disability and students in out-of-home care. When students are in more than one of these groups, the risk of suspension is even greater.

Findings indicate that disability is the most common factor, raising urgent questions as to whether these students are receiving the adjustments and support to which they are entitled under legislation.

The paper, co-authored by researchers from the QUT Center for Inclusive Education Professor Linda Graham and Dr. Callula Killingly and Queensland Advocacy for Inclusion found that students in all three priority equity groups experience the highest rate of repeated suspensions.

Students receiving social-emotional adjustments at school, such as neurodiverse students, are also issued repeat suspensions at a higher rate than students with other types of disability.

"These are not 'naughty kids,'" Professor Graham, Director of C4IE said. "They are children who experience cognitive and sensory overwhelm and who are entitled under law to receive reasonable adjustments to prevent this from occurring."

The paper argues that suspensions are ineffective for these students, who instead need evidenced-based preventions and supports.

"Keeping students out of school does not benefit students, our schools or our community. Suspensions and exclusions don't work, but providing reasonable adjustments, care and support does," Matilda Alexander, CEO of QAI said.

The paper calls for the intersecting needs of students with disability, First Nations students and students in out of home care to be better understood, as many impacted students belong to more than one of these categories.

QAI, together with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (ATSILS), PeakCare Qld, Youth Advocacy Center (YAC) and the Youth Affairs Network of Queensland (YANQ) are currently leading the A Right to Learn campaign.

The campaign is calling on the Queensland Government to establish a Parliamentary Inquiry into the overuse of school suspensions and exclusions in Queensland State Schools.

"These children are our literal future and the educational path we provide for them today will be the road we walk on for decades to come," Alexander says.