A new report reveals that children with disabilities in Australia are disproportionately affected by school suspensions, leading to significant learning loss. The repeated suspensions also impact parents, causing them to miss work hours, which has broader economic implications.
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00:00Eight-year-old Sonny is autistic and loves school, but in year one he hit out at a teacher's
00:09aid after becoming overwhelmed.
00:12He was suspended.
00:13It was really stressful and really heartbreaking, but we couldn't send him back to an environment
00:18where he was going to continually get suspended.
00:21Mother Bianca had to readjust her nursing shifts to homeschool Sonny.
00:26New figures showing Queensland alone suspensions cost parents of children with disability more
00:31than $14 million a year in lost work.
00:35Teachers spend more than 400,000 hours a year managing behaviours.
00:40And many suspended kids end up in the justice system, costing taxpayers nearly $10 million
00:46a year.
00:47Unfair suspensions for kids with disability not only impacts on their rights to attend
00:52school, it also impacts on our broader economy.
00:55Inquiries across the country have shown children with disability are over-represented in school
01:01suspensions, as well as Indigenous students.
01:04Advocates say suspensions rarely improve behaviour and laws should be changed to make them a
01:10last resort.
01:11A child will continue to do the behaviour that got them suspended because it gets them
01:18out of school.
01:19Principals say the solution lies in providing teachers with more support.
01:23I just don't think the resourcing and specialist training for our schools, our public schools
01:30in particular, has kept pace.
01:33Sonny is now thriving at a new school.
01:35They've just got empathy and compassion.
01:39A good outcome for Sonny's schooling and his mum's work.