the Specialist Reporting Team's Alison Branley and national disability affairs reporter Nas Campanella
In short
A new report has shed light on the cost of school suspensions to families and the broader economy.
Children living with disability are over-represented in school suspension statistics.
What's next?
Advocates say change is needed to ensure suspensions are used as a last resort and making schools accessible isn't just about "having a ramp" on every campus.
Eight-year-old Sonny Sawyer loves school, so when he was suspended in Year 1, he was devastated.
His mother Bianca said Sonny, who is autistic, blamed himself.
"The self-loathing and the negative self-talk was really devastating," she said.
"He said he feels like he's a bad kid."
Sonny was suspended from his local public school in coastal Victoria last year after hitting and kicking two teacher aides when he became overwhelmed.
Sonny Sawyer is now thriving at a new school. (Supplied: Bianca Sawyer)
The Sawyer family blames their son's behaviour on what they see as a series of failures by the school and they lodged a discrimination complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission.
Their distress has been compounded by the financial cost of Sonny's suspension.
Bianca, who is a nurse, chose not to risk further suspensions and decided to homeschool Sonny. To do that, she had to adjust her work hours for the rest of the year.
Bianca Sawyer lost income when she reduced her work hours to homeschool Sonny. (ABC News: Patrick Stone)
New figures reveal a similar burden is being imposed on other families, with implications for the broader economy.
In Queensland alone, children with disability are almost twice as likely to receive a short suspension as other students (13.9 per cent compared to 6.9 per cent) and 2,917 will not finish Year 12 because they missed so much school.
The analysis from Queensland Advocacy for Inclusion (QAI) revealed that students with disability in Queensland lost 107,000 days of education a year due to suspensions.
"Kids with disability were suspended for some really silly reasons, like just before an inspector comes to look at the school or as a warning to other children," QAI CEO Matilda Alexander said.
The report found the broader costs to society and the economy included:
- Parents of children with disability collectively lost up to 76,000 days of work each year because of suspensions, at a cost of $14.1 million in lost income.
- Teachers lost 440,664 hours on time spent managing student behaviour, worth $20.1 million a year.
- Suspensions put students on a trajectory to the justice system. The involvement of 300 students with disability equated to up to $9.8 million in youth justice costs.
- About 3,000 kids with disability were not graduating high school per year because of suspensions, at a cost of $41 million to the economy.
"Ending unfair suspensions is not just the right thing to do. It's an economically smart thing to do," Ms Alexander said.
Matilda Alexander says unfair suspensions of kids with disability have wide-ranging impacts. (ABC News: Chris Gillette)
National spotlight on suspensions
Inquiries in South Australia and New South Wales have shed light on the suspension rates of students with disability in those states as well.
In NSW, students with disability made up 50 per cent of suspensions in semester 1 of 2022, despite only making up 18 per cent of enrolments.
Statistics from 2019 in South Australia painted a similar picture.
QIA has called for a suite of legal changes so suspensions are only used as a last resort.
It also wants rights of appeal for short suspensions, a right to representation and more transparency.
Linda Graham, director of the Centre for Inclusive Education at Queensland University of Technology, said evidence showed suspensions generally made behaviour worse in the long term.
"If a child is suspended for emotional meltdown where they might hit out, you're teaching them that when they want to get out of the classroom, that's what they need to do," she said.
Professor Linda Graham says kids with disability are not inherently naughty and suspending them as a first step can reinforce unwanted behaviours. (ABC News: Sarah Richards)
Professor Graham said what's usually happening in those situations was due to "emotional overwhelm, misunderstanding or something else".
"They're not doing it because they're naughty," she said.
Ms Alexander said making schools accessible was about more than just "having a ramp" at every school and repeated suspensions could erode the self-esteem of children over time.
"So often, what the kid needs is reasonable adjustments to their education, to their classroom, to their timetable, and that's what's going to fix the problem," she said.
Teachers need more support
Professor Graham said the solution wasn't bringing in more teacher aides, but giving teachers more time to develop inclusive lessons.
She said Australian teachers had the highest teaching load in the world, with OECD figures showing secondary teachers were teaching more than 800 hours a year.
Australian Secondary Principals Association president Andy Mison said the rising rates of suspension were reflective of schools admitting more students with disability, but resources were not keeping up.
"We are balancing increased expectation from the community for a really highly personalised learning program," he said.
He said schools generally made suspension a last resort and it can be a "circuit breaker".
"Suspensions are often used to create a little bit of time and space to allow schools and families to resolve the situation and perhaps put some plans in place for the return of that student."
Inquiries in South Australia and NSW have heard about the high rates of suspension of students with disability. (ABC News: Mark Leonardi)
Ms Sawyer agreed teachers needed more support.
She said in the weeks leading up to Sonny's suspension, he'd been removed from his Year 1 class and placed in a classroom alone with a teacher aide to learn.
"The school [had] every policy, every learning plan, behaviour plan," she said.
"It wasn't worth the paper it was written on."
In a statement, the Victorian Department of Education said Sonny's school "acted appropriately, with a focus on the safety and wellbeing of all students and staff and appropriate communication with parents".
Sonny is now at a new school and — according to his mum — thriving.
"They've just got empathy and compassion and treat him like a little person that has different needs, as opposed to a problem that they want to get rid of," Ms Sawyer said.