Tasmanian children and young people with disabilities are being suspended from schools at higher rates than those without disabilities, as the education department keeps a close eye on the rising use of the behaviour management tool.
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The use of suspensions has increased overall across Tasmanian schools, with Education Minister Roger Jaensch stating in last week's budget estimates that vaping-related suspensions are on the rise.
Suspensions are used by schools to increase the safety of students and staff, and to deal with violence and anti-social behaviour, disobedience with instructions, breaking rules and policies, and illegal behaviours.
Education Minister Roger Jaensch said the rising number of suspensions being handed out to children with disability was known to him and his department.
Mr Jaensch said the rising number of students being recognised with disability was a factor to consider when looking at the increase.
He said schools were now recognising that disability can be considered as an explanation for suspension-producing behaviours.
"When looking at the data a little deeper the highest number of suspensions occur with those that require substantial adjustments, and they are more likely to be suspended than students with no disability," Mr Jaensch said.
"In this discussion...one of the things we need to [consider] is that the number of students who are identified as having disability, and receiving support and adjustment for their disability, has been growing year on year."
Education department secretary Tim Bullard said a school's decision to suspend a student with disability often concerned safety for that student and others.
"The department is focused on increasing staff capacity to support students exhibiting unacceptable behaviours...[it] continues to invest in supports and coaching and professional learning in the area of inclusive practice, and trauma informed practice, to build staff capacity to support students with disability," he said.
Mr Bullard said his department was closely analysing suspension data, noting that violence between students, particularly in Years 7 and 8, was a major contributor to rising suspensions across Australia.
"One of the things that we have done is to be monitoring those suspensions. We have also done some analysis on why, and looking at, does it relate to parent occupation, socio-economic status, regional and remote and urban location, and gender and age of those students," Mr Bullard said.
"Where we believe there are other approaches other than suspensions, [such as] tighter behaviour management practices or alternative learning opportunities, then we are supporting schools to put those in."
He said he was also concerned about Tasmanian education policy that automatically suspends for illegal behaviours, which included smoking and vaping.
"If you are caught smoking at school you need to have a suspension off-site. For some of those matters, there would be other ways that we would want to address that behaviour...it has become clear, especially around vaping and smoking in particular, that [suspensions] do not seem like a proactive approach."
A record 8872 suspensions were handed out in 2022, which had risen up from 6790 in 2020.
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