Stand-downs, suspensions, exclusions and expulsions from school

This page provides statistics on the numbers and rates of stand-downs, suspensions, exclusions and expulsions from school.

The age-standardised rates and numbers of students stood down, suspended, excluded and expelled in state and state integrated schools. (Age-standardisation is described in “The measures” section).

Last updated: December 2025

Indicator

The age-standardised rates and numbers of students stood down, suspended, and excluded decreased, and the rate and number of students expelled increased in 2024. The most common behavioural types given continued to be physical assault on other students and continual disobedience.

Figure 1: The age-standardised stand-down rate decreased in 2024

Figure 1: Stand-down rates

Figure 2: The age-standardised suspension and exclusion rates decreased in 2024 compared to 2023; expulsion rates increased in 2024

Figure 2: Suspension, exclusion and expulsion rates

For more information see the Stand-downs, suspensions, exclusions and expulsions indicator report.

Stand-downs

A stand-down results when a principal decides to remove a student from school or kura for a period of up to five school days. A stand-down for any student can total no more than five school days in any term, or ten school days in a year. Students return to school or kura following a stand-down.

Suspensions

A suspension is when a principal removes a student from a state or integrated school or kura until the Board decides the outcome at a suspension meeting. Following a suspension, the Board must meet within seven school days and make one of the following possible decisions:

  1. Lift the suspension without conditions;
  2. Lift the suspension with conditions;
  3. Extend the suspension with conditions;
  4. Exclude or expel the student.

Exclusions and expulsions

Following a suspension meeting, the Board may decide to permanently remove a student. If the student is:

  1. Under the age of 16, the student is excluded;
  2. Aged 16 or over, the student is expelled.

Going to school every day is important for students to develop skills for lifelong learning and there is a clear connection between going to school regularly and doing well in the classroom. Students who are stood down, suspended, excluded or expelled have their ability to attend school disrupted.

Stand-downs, suspensions, exclusions and expulsions are not direct measures of student behaviour, but rather they are indications of how schools and kura respond to student behaviour. The data presented is for students in state and state-integrated schools during the 2024 calendar year.

Time series

These spreadsheets provide the number of students and rates of stand-downs, suspensions, exclusions and expulsions since the year 2000 in an easy to use format.

The measures

The data for years other than 2024 is standardised to the 2024 age distribution. For more detail see “Age-standardisation” in the definitions and data dimensions section on this page.

Indicator description: Stand-downs

The numerator and denominator for each age-specific stand-down rate is calculated as follows:

Numerator:
Total number of stand-downs occurring during the school year.
(Data source: Ministry of Education: Stand-downs and suspensions database)

Denominator:
Total number of students on roll as at 1 July of each year, by individual year of age, excluding:

  • students from schools which are not receiving public funding,
  • students at Correspondence School,
  • students older than 19 years, and
  • International fee-paying students.

(Data source: Ministry of Education: July school roll return)

Indicator description: Suspensions

The numerator and denominator for each age-specific suspension rate is calculated as follows:

Numerator:
Total number of suspensions occurring during the school year.
(Data source: Ministry of Education: Stand-downs and suspensions database)

Denominator:
Total number of students on roll as at 1 July of each year, by individual year of age, excluding:

  • students from schools which are not receiving public funding,
  • students at Correspondence School,
  • students older than 19 years, and
  • International fee-paying students.

(Data source: Ministry of Education: July school roll return)

Indicator description: Exclusions and expulsions

The numerator and denominator for each age-specific exclusion/expulsion rate is calculated as follows:

Numerator:
Total number of exclusions or expulsions occurring during the school year.
(Data source: Ministry of Education: Exclusions and expulsions database)

Denominator:
Total number of students on roll as at 1 July of each year, by individual year of age, excluding:

  • students from schools which are not receiving public funding,
  • students at Correspondence School,
  • students older than 19 years, and
  • International fee-paying students.

(Data source: Ministry of Education: July school roll return)

Definitions and data dimensions

Age standardisation

This indicator uses age-standardised rates. All rates are instances per 1,000 students. We standardise for age so that fairer comparisons can be made between different groups and from year to year. That is, age-standardisation removes any differences due to one group having a younger or older population than other groups, or if the overall age distribution has changed from year to year.

In this indicator, the age distributions of students in each category and year have been standardised to the set of 2024 age-specific rates for all New Zealand.

Behaviour

Stand-downs are not a measure of student behaviour but a measure of a school’s reaction to the behaviours. What one school may choose to suspend for, another may not. The number of these events should not be used as a proxy measure for total student behaviour.

There are 15 different ‘behaviour’ categories that can be selected as the reason for concern. The category "Other" includes: sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, weapons, and other harmful or dangerous behaviour.

Age

The student’s age when they first received the stand-down, suspension, expulsion or exclusion. The age of students is between 5 and 19 years old.

Ethnic group

The Ministry uses Statistics New Zealand's methodology for reporting of ethnicity: ethnicity is any ethnic group or groups that people identify with or feel they belong to. Ethnicity is a measure of cultural affiliation, rather than race, ancestry, nationality, or citizenship.

This means up to 3 different ethnic groups can be recorded for each student. A student is counted in each ethnic group they belong to and once in "Total" ethnic group.

Gender

The gender of the students, as recorded in the school’s roll return (or ENROL if no roll return data for students).

Equity Index Band

The Equity Index Bands are an indicator of the relative degree of socio-economic barriers to educational achievement faced by students at the schools in each band, and is used as a tool for analysing and reporting on socio-economic trends in education data. Equity Index Bands are derived from the Equity Index used for school funding. There are seven Equity Index Bands each containing a similar number of schools. In order of increasing socio-economic barriers the bands are named: “Fewest”, “Few”, “Below Average”, “Average”, “Above Average”, “Many”, and “Most”.

The school equity index has been in use since 2023. For 2019 to 2023 the Equity Index Bands are derived from the 2023 Equity index numbers in order to provide a time series.

More information on the Equity Index Bands and Groups can be found here.

Equity Index Group

There are three groups of schools formed by collapsing the seven Equity Index Bands to form three groups: Fewer socio-economic barriers, moderate socio-economic barriers and most socio-economic barriers.

More information on the Equity Index Bands and Groups can be found here.

Region: Regional council

The regional council area the school of the student is located in. Regional council boundaries are defined by Statistics New Zealand.

Region: Education area

These are twelve administrative regions created by the Ministry of Education and aligned with the Ministry's ten local offices.  Students are included in the education area of the last school they were enrolled with. In 2023 the Auckland region was split into 3 education areas, Tāmaki Herenga Tāngata (north and west Auckland), Tāmaki Herenga Manawa (central and east Auckland) and Tāmaki Herenga Waka (south and southwest Auckland).

Region: Territorial authority

The territorial authority area that each student’s school is located in. Territorial authority boundaries are defined by Statistics New Zealand. Auckland Territorial Authority is further broken down into local board.