NSW budget estimates: Data on public school student suspensions revealed

Hundreds of suspensions were issued for children in kindergarten last year with one NSW public school student was suspended for a total of 120 days.

One errant school student missed more than half of the 2020 academic year because they were suspended for 120 days.

The mystery student would have struggled to attend just one full term of school last year after missing two terms due to suspensions, on top of losing three months due to the coronavirus school shutdown.

“The highest total days lost to suspensions by a student in 2020 was 120,” a Department of Education response to questions on notice in Budget Estimates in NSW parliament said.

P and C Central Coast president Sharryn Brownlee said no matter how naughty a child might be, it was unacceptable for one child to be suspended for more than half the academic year.

“What a massive failure of the Department of Education to not work with that family and to continue to suspend and alienate that child from learning,” she said.

Little boy sitting alone on floor after suffering an act of bullying while children run in the background. Sad young schoolboy sitting on corridor with hands on knees and head between his legs.

One errant school student missed more than half of the 2020 academic year because they were suspended for 120 days.

Ms Brownlee said the number of schools which cater for students with behaviour issues had not kept pace with population growth and called on the government to build more.

“More and more children miss out on placement because there aren’t enough spots,” she said.

Opposition Education spokeswoman Prue Car said the government had not come good on its promise to deliver one full-time counsellor or psychologist and one student support officer to every school two years ago.

“Students are meant to go to school to learn. Actions must have consequences but if students are being kept out of school for months clearly more action needs to be taken,” she said.

The data provided by the Department also revealed 961 suspensions were issued last year to Kindergarten students, 119 of which were long suspensions that are given for reasons including physical violence and possession of a prohibited weapon like a knife.

Of the almost 1000 suspensions issued, 75 per cent or 697 of them were given to students with some kind of disability.

Central Coast P & C spokeswoman Sharryn Brownlee. Picture: Peter Clark

Students in Year 8 were the most likely to be suspended — with 12,690 students in that grade alone told to stay home in 2020.

School behaviour consultant Carl Warren who works in a number of public schools said younger students found the coronavirus school shutdown more disruptive because in some cases they had only been at school for a matter of weeks before they were told to learn from home.

“If you have only been at school for 10 weeks, disruption like the COVID shutdown is going to matter a lot,” he said.

“We have seen kids coming back who are a long way behind academically, they haven’t learnt routines because they’re not there.”

It is unknown why the mystery student was suspended for so long.

A Department of Education spokeswoman would not reveal the reasons why one student was suspended for 120 days but said a new policy would improve how students with complex needs were managed.

“The Department does not centrally report on the specific circumstances which leads to a suspension,” she said.

“We are looking at new ways to support schools to manage students with complex behaviours through the recently developed Student Behaviour Strategy.”