Bad behaviour keeps hundreds out of schools

More than 1200 students aged under 16 years have been banned from schools nationwide so far this year because of out-of-control behaviour.

Education Ministry figures showed a total of 1205 students had been banned or "excluded" for the year to September 23.

Exclusion is the formal removal of a student aged under 16 from the school with the requirement that the student enrol elsewhere.

However, some students had slipped through the system and were currently unaccounted for, according to figures.

Of those 1205 students excluded, two of them were "untraceable" and 13 had been "referred to a tracing agency".

A further 39 per cent had enrolled at a new school, 5 per cent had returned to the suspending school, and 8 per cent had enrolled at correspondence schools.

The remaining students awaiting ministry or school action, had elected to apply for an early leaving or home schooling exemption, had left the country, or had turned 16 and may have chosen to leave school.

Ministry southern region acting student support manager Sean Wheeler said for a child to get excluded, he or she would have been involved in serious misdemeanours such as recurrent drug-taking or dealing at school, extreme physical violence or a long history of disobedience.

A school's board of trustees made the decision to exclude a student and was initially responsible for finding alternative education.

If attempts to place the student elsewhere failed, the ministry 's student services division took over, Mr Wheeler said.

A meeting was then held between the school, the child's parents and any other relevant agencies, such as the police, Child, Youth and Family and mental health services, to decide on how to get the child back into education.

In extreme cases it took as long as a term to find a suitable place for the child, Mr Wheeler said.

In the case of secondary school students, this could mean joining a correspondence school or taking part in "alternative education" programmes, he said.

In 2004, a total of 1432 students were excluded from schools around the country, and 1490 students were excluded in 2003.

- NZPA