Number of School Suspensions Nearly Doubled After Lockdown: Government Data

School children playing during a break at a primary school in Yorkshire, England, on Nov. 27, 2019. Danny Lawson/PA Wire

The number of pupils being suspended from school has nearly doubled since before the COVID-19 lockdown, according to Department for Education (DfE) data.

Figures published on Friday showed there were 346,279 suspensions in the autumn term of school year 2023/2024 across state schools in England, an increase of 94 percent on the 178,412 suspensions recorded in the autumn of 2019.

The number of suspensions—when a child is excluded for a set period of time—has also increased sharply on the year before, rising 40 percent on the 247,366 during the autumn term of 2022/2023.

In terms of the rate of suspensions, before the pandemic, it stood at 2.17 and is now almost double at 4.13, equivalent to 413 suspensions for every 10,000 children.

“There are more pupils being suspended, and more frequently,” the DfE said in its report, noting that the total number of days pupils are being suspended is increasing.

The rate of permanent exclusions has also increased, going from 0.04 in the autumn term of 2019/2020 to 0.05 at the start of 2023/2024. In terms of numbers, autumn 2023 saw 4,200 permanent exclusions, an increase of 1,000 on the pre-lockdown autumn term.

The DfE said that the most common reason for exclusions and suspensions was persistent disruptive behaviour, accounting for half of all reasons for suspensions and 36 percent of exclusions.

Post-Lockdown Behavioural Problems

The figures come amid warnings of an increase of bad behaviour from pupils following the lockdowns when the government closed schools and children went to remote learning.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said, “This has become a great deal worse since the pandemic, where many children experienced disruption to their education and isolation that are continuing to have a lasting impact.”

Di’Iasio said that schools often do not have the resources to provide specialist support to prevent behavioural issues from getting worse, “and so we see this ending up with suspensions and permanent exclusions being used as a last resort.”

Paul Whiteman, general secretary at the school leaders’ union the National Association of Head Teachers, said that disruptive behaviour had its roots in challenges facing families, “with parents having faced everything from a cost of living crisis to a pandemic in recent years.”

Education Minister Stephen Morgan said in response to the surge that the government was “determined to turn the tide on poor behaviour, break down barriers to opportunity and ensure every child can achieve and thrive.”

Morgan said: “We’ve already announced a significant £1 billion investment in Send, committed to providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, and our new regional improvement teams will work with schools to spread the highest standards of behaviour across our classrooms.

“But we know there is more to do, and are looking closely at how we can go further to support teachers and drive up standards for all our children.”

Lockdown ‘Aftershocks’

In recent years, education specialists have highlighted the disruption to children’s learning and well-being caused by government-mandated lockdowns.

A Nuffield Foundation report from April said that not only did lockdown-induced school closures caused significant and long-lasting damage to learning, but also deprived children of in-person support and social interaction.

The report said that teachers had reported “greater behaviour problems in classrooms since the pandemic,” the think tank adding that by its estimates, there has been a “significant decline in the socio-emotional skills for successive COVID-19 cohorts.”

A young girl paints a picture of herself on the school window as children of key workers take part in school activities at Oldfield Brow Primary School in Altrincham, England, on April 8, 2020. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Last year, the National Governance Association (NGA) said that “aftershocks” from the lockdowns continued to affect schools. School leaders said that behavioural challenges had seen a sharp increase, with 68 percent of respondents to an NGA survey noting an increase in worsening student behaviour over the previous 12 months.

Persistently Absent

The post-lockdown era has also seen a rise in the number of pupils who are persistently absent, missing at least 10 percent of school sessions (where a session is half a day).

Government figures from October showed that the number of persistently absent pupils was at 19.2 percent in autumn and spring 2023/2024. While this is a decrease from 21.2 percent in 2022/2023, it is still close to double the rate before the lockdowns, which was 10.5 percent in 2018/2019.

Severe absence (missing 50 percent or more sessions) has increased year-on-year, with 2.1 percent of pupils being severely absent in autumn and spring 2023/2024, an increase from 1.9 percent in the same terms in 2022/2023. This equates to 158,000 children, increasing from 139,000.

Commenting on the data, the Centre for Social Justice’s programme lead, Beth Prescott, remarked: “Four years on from the pandemic and school closures, the crisis of kids missing school shows no sign of abating. Severe absence is up year on year, and one in five children remain persistently absent.”

“Without faster and further action, like the national rollout of attendance mentors and a parental participation strategy, we will be picking up the pieces from this unfolding social disaster for years to come,” Prescott added.

PA Media contributed to this report.