Informal school suspensions and “soft expulsions” are fuelling Melbourne’s youth crime crisis, as young people are cut adrift from the education system with no clear pathways back.
Youth leaders and education experts warn that soft expulsions or suspensions – where a child is excluded from school without going through official processes – are widespread across government, Catholic and private schools. Children who have been excluded from school are often at high risk of offending.
Jiress Musafiri works with families in his role with the Australian African Foundation for Retention and Opportunity.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
Victorian state schools expelled 266 students in 2023, according to official records. But soft expulsions have been recognised since at least 2017, when the Victorian Ombudsman reported that the official number of expulsions was a fraction of those informally expelled, “on whom no data is kept”.
Individual schools are required to record student suspensions and need regional office approval for suspensions of more than five continuous days, or more than 15 days in total in a school year.
Lisa McKay-Brown, an associate professor at the University of Melbourne with expertise in school attendance research, said there was no way of knowing how many students were unofficially suspended or expelled.
She said that in some cases, schools might ask students to take a “break” to give everyone “a little bit of respite” and decide not to record a formal suspension, which could result in failing to devise support plans for returning the student to school.
“The problem with that is there’s nothing that’s recorded, and there may not be a return to school plan or some form of support plan for the student when they come back,” McKay-Brown said.
“[Schools] don’t know what to do. They don’t have the resources to support them to actually give the kids what they need to get back into school.”
Real Schools founder Adam Voigt.
She said some students were also put on modified student timetables.
“The young people you’re talking about who have been in trouble at school, perhaps, or who are absent from school for various reasons ... there’s no effort made to necessarily keep in touch and get them back to school.”
Adam Voigt, the founder of educational support agency Real Schools, said unofficial suspensions often happened by mutual negotiation and were used by principals – including himself when he was one – when behaviour might not meet the threshold for an official suspension. Real Schools partners 300 Australian schools to support teachers improve student behaviour through restorative practices.
“We don’t want a suspension going on his record, let’s give everyone a breather and bring him back with things ready and prepared for him on Monday,” Voigt said as an example.
“It’s akin to having a tough day at work – why don’t you take the rest of the arvo off? It’s in that realm.”
Voigt said a young person did not become disengaged from school due to one day of soft suspension.
He said principals were aware regular suspensions could trigger recidivism.
“Anytime you are interrupting their relationship to their teachers or peers, or any time you are adding to that stigma of ‘you are that kid who got suspended’, principals know the risk of [the student] getting suspended again has gone up,” he said.
Victoria’s youth crime rate is at its highest level since electronic records began. Over the past year, there was an 18 per cent rise in offences committed by children aged 10-17, according to Crime Statistics Agency figures.
There is a range of issues young people become involved in crime. However, there was a clear link between young people disengaging from school and drifting towards crime, said Youth Support and Advocacy Service chief executive Andrew Bruun.
“Schools offer you a sense of the future, and young people [who] get involved in crime have often lost a sense that they can have a better life,” he said.
Jiress Musafiri, who works with African Australian families in Melbourne’s west as general manager of the Australian African Foundation for Retention and Opportunity, said disengagement was rampant across Melbourne schools.
“It shouldn’t be up to schools to make that decision on who can get an education and who cannot, who’s a bad child and who is not,” he said.
His organisation collaborates with schools to create a cohesive and supportive learning environment aimed at reducing student disengagement.
But Musafiri said soft suspensions or expulsions could lead to young people being unsupervised for hours if parents needed to work while the student was away from school, which could lead to mental health challenges, drug or alcohol use and even youth offending.
Jo Ellis, acting chief executive of youth legal service Youthlaw, said the reasons children disengage from school were complex, and teachers did the best they could with what they had.
“We see children who have experienced family violence, trauma or who have neurodevelopmental disabilities that make school tough being channelled out of the [education] system that should be designed to wrap around them,” Ellis said.
‘It shouldn’t be up to schools to make that decision on who can get an education and who cannot, who’s a bad child and who is not.’
Jiress Musafiri, Australian African Foundation for Retention and Opportunity
“Sometimes children we support have been disengaged from education for many months, or even years, due to the existing systems failing them.”
A youth worker who asked not to be identified called for the return of truancy officers.
“We have a system where we only get to the young person when it’s too late,” he said.
Matthew White, a lecturer in inclusive education at the Australian Catholic University, likened informal suspensions to “Band-Aid solutions to really complex problems”.
White said there might be ad hoc agreements with parents – such as sending their child home at lunchtime – without following official processes.
“Schools just don’t have that many options when it comes to supporting young people who often come to school with really complex family backgrounds, complex issues that are just beyond capacity of schools,” he said.
Australian Principals Federation president Tina King says principals often have to deal with complex behavioural incidents.Credit: Jason South
Australian Principals Federation president Tina King said it was important to recognise that principals often dealt with highly complex behavioural incidents, which include trauma, violence or escalating safety risks.
“Short breaks from the classroom are used not to exclude but to de-escalate a situation and ensure the safety and wellbeing of all involved,” King said.
“These practices are generally accompanied by follow-up restorative work, re-entry planning and behavioural reflection.
“Principals do not want to see any child disengage from education, however, they are often navigating limited resourcing, staff capacity constraints and an accountability system that does not always accommodate the complexity of student need.”
The Victorian Government invested $25.6 million in the Navigator program, which provides case management support to address severely disengaged learners to get them back into school.
Education Minister Ben Carroll did not respond to questions about informal suspensions or expulsions but said every day counted when it came to a student’s education.
“It’s why schools closely monitor absences and work with families and carers to support the engagement of all Victorian students,” he said.
“The department has practical steps a school can take to engage with students and families.”
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