What you said about reform as more than half of all suspended or expelled students have disability
Queensland’s crippling school problem has ignited a war of words over how to tackle the crisis. HAVE YOUR SAY
A Courier-Mail columnist has reignited an almight debate after questioning if inclusive schools are the future for Queensland.
Government figures have revealed that between term three in 2024 and term two in 2025, there were more than 71,403 school suspensions or expulsions, 42,968 of which involved a student with a disability.
While a majority of the incidents resulted in short term suspensions – between one and 10 days – hundreds of students with disabilities saw suspensions spanning weeks or longer.
Queensland Advocacy for Inclusion (QAI) Chief Executive Matilda Alexander said the proportion of students with a disability facing suspensions had risen from 49 per cent in 2023 to 64 per cent now.
Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Commissioner Natalie Lewis, who advocates for children with disabilities, said numbers are continuing to rise.
Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said principals had made it clear they did not want suspensions and expulsions relaxed.
Columnist Kylie Lang kickstarted the debate.
“I would also question what constitutes a “disability” – a genuine medically diagnosed condition or bad behaviour stemming from a lack of discipline at home?,” she wrote.
“... Despite promises from previous Labor governments, which excelled at being woke, mainstream teachers were never upskilled in how to educate students with disabilities.
“... Is it not discriminatory against children without disabilities to have so much class time taken up by children with disabilities?”
Readers had their own views, with many claiming parents hide behind the “cop out” of a disability when it comes to poor behaviour.
Others, though, insisted there are better ways to handle things, while some claimed a reality check is needed across the board.
In an online poll more than 90 per cent of readers voted that students get away with too much.
See what you had to say below and join the conversation >>>
WHAT YOU SAID
Inclusion is not the way
Lyndal
Decades ago, the special Ed unit attached to the mainstream school was the best form of inclusion. Special needs students joined in with the mainstream class when they could, but also received the specialtist attention they needed from their unit. That was inclusion. Not what is happening today.
Trevor
That’s what we have in Victoria. Really works very well, as a retired teacher I can testify to that.
Marianne
Yes, my daughter is a high school teacher. Teachers need a Teachers aide to help everyday- classes include autistic children, children with high emotional needs( anxiety), children who have no interest in learning ( or reading a book)! Children with behaviour problems - etc!
Saying It As It Is
The term “disability” is overused. We now allow kids with Google diagnoses to be called disabled. So poor classroom teachers are dealing with thirty different (supposedly) disabled students.
SarahE4
Inclusivity is a good idea socially but realistically it doesn’t matter how hard a teacher tries, they cannot support students adequately learning at a year 3 level when they are in year 8.
What a cop out
Max
Yep a ‘disability’ is the excuse label used by too many parents for poor behaviour which is not ‘disability’ related. As soon as a child’s anti social behaviour is highlighted by the school, the ‘disability’ excuse card is usually used by the parent (can’t blame the parenting). Not a popular reality! So sad for those lovely well behaved kids who really do have a disability and have been brought up to know the difference between right and wrong. (Mrs Max, a teacher)
Pepys
3 per cent of disabilities are organic (OECD), and the rest are learning difficulties adhd and ASD. It takes 10 minutes to get your child a diagnosis of ADHD from a busy GP, armed with that the school will get more funding, and the “ disabilities” group includes a large number of kids with poor discipline, no respect, and entitlement
Andrew
The failure is the bad behaviour being displayed by students with little to no consequences. Why should some students take away the learning for others.
Geoffrey
Three inferences that could be made to fill some gaps here; far too many students are labelled as having a disability; some disabilities may not be best catered for in a mainstream school, and some ‘disabled’ students are being suspended because their behaviour is disruptive to other students’ learning.
Uncle
Yet I work at a special school … no suspensions or expulsions.
Whoops! … there goes that theory and it’s just an excuse, anyway. Parents blame everything and everyone else for their failures.
I have an idea
Hilly
All inclusive, DOES NOT WORK. We need the sep units back and this is from a parent of children with a disability (that’s not how I like to call it though).
George
Or perhaps we could separate disability from behaviour? Perhaps we could consider that behaviour and disregulation is a result of inadequate support, a legal requirement for students with disabilities. Perhaps we could invest more in long term support and training rather than bandaid solutions and blaming families and students.
Patricia
This is why we use to have special schools years ago.
Person
Advocate for Inclusion is another way of saying Burn the Majority for the sake of one. Stupid policy and not working in schools.
Sharyn
The inclusion experiment has gone wrong – bring back students attending the right school for them to get the support they need rather than pushing for everyone in be in mainstream education where teachers are spread so thin that nobody gets what they need
Reality check
Andrew
Perhaps these people suggesting suspensions as a last resort get a dose of reality and work in the state schools or send their own kids to a state school. We can then see if they still believe that students who take away the rights of others to learn in a safe environment without unacceptable behaviour should not be suspended just because of their disability.
B
So yet again the so-called experts believe that it is OK for a student to be violent or aggressive to a peer or a staff member and not suffer a serious consequence for the behaviour?
Groucho
I’m retired, but as a principal I had a strict rule on behaviour – if a child had deliberately hurt someone, then out. I didn’t care if they had a disability, a psychological condition, or were having a hard life, you hurt people, I give you a holiday, and if it repeats too much, a permanent holiday.
Realistic
Seriously?
Schools years ago never had this problem!
Truth
We need more special school places to help special need students. Mainstreaming doesn’t appear to have worked as well as the education experts wanted.
Yes, Labor has work to do, but for LNP the only way is down
