The rate of suspensions in ACT high schools have hit their highest level in six years, new Education Directorate figures show.
Statistics show there was a drop in suspensions during the COVID-affected years of 2020 and 2021, but the use of the exclusionary measure has increased in the following years.
Students with disabilities and form Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds were more likely to be suspended.
While the suspension rate for all students was 3.1 per cent, Indigenous students were suspended at more than three times that rate (10.3 per cent) while students in a disability program were suspended at a rate of 8.2 per cent.
An Education Directorate spokesman said the suspension rate was "unacceptably high" for Indigenous students and students with disabilities. The directorate was prompted partly by the Disability Royal Commission to make changes to suspension procedures in January 2023.
"These reforms clarify that a student may only be suspended for the purpose of providing the time necessary to ensure a safe and effective learning environment at school," the spokesman said.
"Suspensions cannot be used as a punitive measure."
'Traumatic juggle'
ACT Council of Parents and Citizens Associations executive officer Veronica Elliott said suspensions had a devastating effect on young people.
"The exclusion from school communities reminds students of how they don't fit in, it exacerbates poor mental health conditions and self-image issues," Ms Elliott said.
"It's a traumatic juggle for parents watching their young person struggle, trying to make ends meet, hold down a job, and help put their young person back together often with little supports."
A formal suspension should trigger a review and update of all learning plans, Ms Elliott said.
A legislation change in 2022 meant suspensions could be no longer than 20 days, concurrent suspensions were not allowed and students must be given materials and support to learn during their suspension period.
Schools also need to be satisfied that there are no other reasonable alternatives to successfully manage a student's non-compliant behaviour.
"The 2023 suspension data demonstrates there is more work to do to embed these reforms, and provide clearer guidance to schools - particularly around the recognition of a student's individual circumstances, including disability or other vulnerabilities, in the decision-making process," the directorate spokesman said.
In 2023, parents and carers asked for a review of 20 decisions to suspend a child. In 2022 there were 24 requests for review.
Parents have reported the use of informal suspensions where they are called at short notice to pick up their child but no formal suspension is issued. In other cases, schools ask for children to be put on reduced hours.
The Education Directorate did not have any data on how many children were suspended informally.
Ms Elliott said informal suspension should not be used anymore.
"These types of suspensions allow schools to continue un-inclusive practices," she said.
"They are invisible, not being reported on and don't trigger review of the reasonable adjustments (supports) that should be in place to support the student."
Australian Catholic University senior lecturer in educational leadership Dr Paul Kidson said principals were balancing multiple obligations to the student being suspended but also to the safety of other students.
"This becomes quite acute when it deals with issues related to physical violence, for example," Dr Kidson said.
"The responsibility to provide a safe learning environment and a safe working environment for teachers has become much more pronounced over the last few years and so they are very complex decisions that school leaders need to make through the lens of their policy and process."
Restorative justice, trauma informed responses and positive behaviour for learning programs were some of the ways school culture could be improved, he said.
Dr Kidson said reducing violence in schools was a bilateral responsibility between schools and families, but research had shown this had broken down in many instances.
"We see that in an increase in offensive threats, violent language from parents and caregivers towards teachers and principals," he said.
"Now that is not a healthy dynamic when we're trying to create positive learning environments."
'Doesn't fix the issue'
The rate of children with disabilities being suspended is likely to be much higher in reality because the directorate has used a narrow definition of disability which only includes students who meet strict criteria.
It does not include the broader definition used under the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD), which includes students whose needs can be supported by varying teaching practices.
Australian Catholic University inclusive education lecturer Dr Matthew White said informal suspension of students with a disability were a form of discrimination.
"It really goes against the Disability Discrimination Act and disability standards. So it's one of those sort of undercurrent management approaches that schools and systems adopt that the parents are just subject to," Dr White said.
Dr White said problematic behaviour was usually related to an unmet need or a skill that the child was lacking.
He said schools should ideally adopt a collaborative problem-solving approach to adjust the systems in place and to avoid a vicious cycle of suspensions.
"A suspension doesn't actually fix the issue. I don't know any kids who actually got home and sat at his home and thought if I just didn't behave like that, then I wouldn't be suspended," he said.
