Suspensions are often over-used in the very schools carrying the heaviest load… and that’s more than understandable. When behaviour is at its most challenging, staff are stretched, and the community expects action. Exclusion can feel like the only lever left.
But a decade-long Queensland study tracking nearly 900 primary schools tells a cautionary story. Schools with higher suspension rates and unexplained absences were more likely to see poorer achievement and weaker confidence measures in the years that followed. Suspension, over time, stopped being a safety response and became part of the problem.
This isn’t an argument for “never suspend”. It’s an argument for suspending in alignment with the culture school leaders are authentically optimising for.
From my experience, schools that reduce recidivism treat suspension as a pause for repair, not a removal for relief. They distinguish between misbehaviour and harm – because there’s punching, and then there’s punching.
When harm is serious, suspension creates space for calming, healing and proper restoration, not just time away.
Those schools are also clearer with students who repeat patterns through a singular behaviour focus, a singular expectation and a singular pre-agreed consequence. They don’t rely on, “Be good” or, “Try harder” fallacies.
Follow-through matters – but so too does restoring the harm when the student returns. Even refusal is handled calmly, with choices made explicit rather than powerplays escalated.
The inconvenient truth is that suspensions can maximise safety in the short term (only because the naughty kid isn’t there!), but culture determines the winners of the long game. Leaders who suspend with clarity, fairness and a pathway back protect both their students’ futures and the long-term health of their school.
Give those two priorities an extra thought for a moment, because they’re worth fighting for:
- The long-term futures of your students.
- The health, relevance and performance of your school as a function of its community.
Keep fighting that good fight,
P.S. It might seem an odd word to use, but a “brighter” future is possible when it comes to student suspensions. I’ll be unpacking a framework for that future in a 90-minute online workshop on 11 August called Suspend Smarter.
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