The cost of children with disability being overrepresented in school suspensions, has been laid bare in a new report. Repeated suspensions not only cost students learning time - but their parents also often lose work hours too - and that has broader economic implications.
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00:00Eight-year-old Sunny 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 because Sunny wanted to be at school, but
00:18we couldn't send him back to an environment where he was going to continually get suspended.
00:24Mother Bianca had to readjust her nursing shifts to homeschool Sunny.
00:28New figures showing Queensland alone suspensions cost parents of children with disability more
00:34than $14 million a year in lost work.
00:38Teachers spend more than 400,000 hours a year managing behaviours.
00:42And many suspended kids end up in the justice system, costing taxpayers nearly $10 million
00:48a year.
00:49Unfair suspensions for kids with disability not only impacts on their rights to attend
00:55school, it also impacts on our broader economy.
00:58Inquiries across the country have shown children with disability are over-represented in school
01:03suspensions, as well as Indigenous students.
01:07Advocates say suspensions rarely improve behaviour and laws should be changed to make them a
01:12last resort.
01:13It also creates a reinforcing effect so that a child will continue to do the behaviour
01:23that got them suspended because it gets them out of school.
01:27Principals say the solution lies in providing teachers with more support.
01:32I just don't think the resourcing and specialist training for our schools, our public schools
01:39in particular, has kept pace.
01:42Sunny is now thriving at a new school.
01:45They've just got empathy and compassion and treat him like a little person that has different
01:50needs as opposed to a problem that they want to get rid of.
01:56A good outcome for Sunny's schooling and his mum's work.