SA teachers expelling students in state care too quickly, warns Guardian for Children and Young People Pam Simmons

TEACHERS are “routinely” using suspension or expulsion to discipline troubled students who are living state care “as the only response, rather than as a last resort”, an advocate warns.

TEACHERS are “routinely” using suspension or expulsion to discipline troubled students living in state care “as the only response, rather than as a last resort”, an advocate warns.

Guardian for Children and Young People Pam Simmons has also raised concerns that literacy and numeracy results for children in care “continue to rate significantly lower” than the state average.

The Guardian’s office reviewed the cases of 208 children in 2013-14, which accounts for nearly 10 per cent of all children in state care.

Reporting on the findings, Ms Simmons said Families SA staff had “expressed concern about particular schools’ management” of children in care, which was “described as punitive” rather than in line with guidelines for managing children with behavioural problems stemming from abuse-related trauma.

Families SA workers also “expressed concern that there was an apparent routine use of suspension and exclusion as the only response (to poor behaviour at school), rather than as a last resort”.

A separate report by the Guardian’s office found the suspension rate of children in care peaked at 10.4 per cent in 2009, but had fallen to seven per cent last year. The state average was 2.4 per cent.

Ms Simmons commended the Education and Child Development Department for making a concerted effort to reduce suspension and expulsion rates over the past five years. But she said social workers reported that the disciplinary measures were still commonly used.

SA Secondary Principals Association president Jan Paterson said children in care had “gone through quite significant crisis”.

“The support for young people in secondary schools with psychological health issues is not all that great,” she said.

“Teachers will do their best but are they trained for this? No. They only have as much information as they receive from people working with these young people, like their social worker or psychologist.”

Department acting deputy chief executive, child safety, Julieann Riedstra said exclusion from school “is always a last resort” but suspension could give schools a chance to hold “a problem-solving conference”.

“We work very hard to ensure that where a child is taken out of the class environment, they continue to receive a high level of support,” Ms Riedstra said.

Children in care are meant to have individual education plans which require close communication between the child, caseworkers, carers and school counsellors.

However, the Guardian’s report found only 78 per cent of children in public schools were covered by current plans.

Ms Riedstra said children in care could access tailored education resources, accelerated learning programs and therapies such as speech pathology.

Opposition education spokesman David Pisoni said: “There’s no doubt that when troubled children have trouble coping and they’re not supported, it has an impact on every kid in the class”.