Summary

This is the fifth report on the system of suspensions and stand-downs in New Zealand schools that was put in place in July 1999 and is the third report for a full school year, the first being for 2000.

Suspensions and stand-downs are part of a broad range of ways in which student behaviour is managed. A stand-down or suspension may represent one of a number of interventions for an individual student. These statistics, therefore, tell only part of the story of how schools successfully manage student behaviour for the vast majority of students. The statistics tell us more about how a school chooses to react to behaviour than they do about how young people are behaving.

A key finding of this report is that during the period 2000 to 2002 the number of suspension cases has stabilised while stand-downs continue to rise. It is interesting to note that, for some behaviours, suspensions dropped while stand-downs rose. It is also interesting to note that 55% of schools had no stand-downs while 75% had no suspensions during 2002.

Since reporting under the current rules began, several initiatives to address disparities have been introduced. One of these, described later in this report, is the Suspension Reduction Initiative (SRI) which was launched in 2001 and aims to reduce Māori suspensions. Secondary schools that have chosen to be part of the SRI recorded a rate of 76 per 1,000 for Māori suspensions in 2000. This has dropped substantially to 48 per 1,000 for 2002. Indications are that all students in these schools are benefiting with an overall drop in the suspension rate from 36 per 1,000 in 2000 to 25 per 1,000 in 2002.

In areas of New Zealand where the Ministry of Education is providing support for specific programmes there is a levelling-off or reduction in the number of suspension cases. Schools in the West Coast region recorded lower rates of stand-downs (from 52 per 1,000 students to 37 per 1,000 students) and suspensions (from 17 per 1,000 students to 13 per 1,000 students). Northland schools continue their positive approach to managing student behaviour with stand-down cases remaining steady when compared with 2001 and suspension cases continuing to decline, from 14 per 1,000 students in 2001 to 12 per 1,000 students in 2002.

With some regions of the country making significant progress towards managing student behaviour in positive ways, helped by individual schools making important changes to their methods of dealing with day to day behaviour challenges, the intent of the stand-down and suspension rules to keep young people in school is being achieved.

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