Government Data Shows School Suspensions Almost Doubled Following Lockdown

November 22, 2024 TruthUSA

The figures come amid warnings of an increase of bad behavior from pupils following the lockdowns, when the government closed schools.

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.