Safe Schools

Suspensions and expulsions facts, 2003-04

For the first time since the safe schools act was introduced, the Ministry of Education has collected, verified and made public suspension and expulsion data from school boards.The following is a summary of provincial data for the 2003-04 school year:

Suspension Data for 2003-04^*:

Overall

• 145,426 students were suspended or 6.8 per cent of all students attending Ontario schools
• 229,394 total suspensions were issued, accounting for multiple suspensions for individual students.

Level

• 64,979 or 45% were elementary students (4.5% of all elementary students)
• 80,447 or 55% were secondary students (12% of all secondary students)

Gender

• 34,347 or 24% were female students (3.3% of all female students)
• 111,079 or 76% were male students (10.1% of male students)

Exceptionality**

• 27,250 or 19% of suspended students were students with exceptionalities (8.8% of all students with exceptionalities)

** An exceptional pupil is a pupil whose behavioural, communicational, intellectual, physical or multiple exceptionalities are such that he or she is considered to need placement in a special education program by a committee

Range

• There was a wide range of suspension rates among boards from 0.5% of students to 36.1% of students (see table 1).

Table 1

Forty-one school boards had suspension rates between 5.1% and 10%. Sixteen boards had a rate of 10.1% or more, and fifteen boards had a rate below 5.0%.

Suspension trends since the introduction of the Safe Schools Act

In 2000-01, the year before the Safe Schools Act was introduced, 109,406 students were suspended. The number of students suspended increased to 145,426 in 2003-04

Expulsion Data for 2003-04^*:

Overall

• 1,908 students were expelled or 0.09 per cent of all students.
• Of these, almost 90 percent were for limited expulsions – any where from 20 days to one year. Approximately 10 percent were for full expulsions.

Level¹

• 355 or 19% were elementary students (0.02% of all elementary students)
• 1,521 or 81% were secondary students (0.2% of all secondary students)

Gender¹

• 1,627 of expelled students or 87% were boys (0.15% of all male students)
• 249 of expelled students or 13% were girls (0.02% of all female students)

¹ Expulsion data by elementary/secondary level and gender available from only 71 of 72 boards.

Exceptionality

• 379 or 19.9% of expelled students were students with exceptionalities

Range

• Ten boards did not expel any students in 2003-04. Among the boards that expelled students, there was a very wide range of expulsion rates among boards from 0.005% to 2.31%.

Expulsion trends since the introduction of the Safe Schools Act

In 2000-01, 106 students were reported expelled. The number of reported expelled students increased to 1,908 in 2003-04. There was a large increase from 2000-01 to 2001-02 and a smaller year-over-year increase to 2003-04.

^* Figures are updated to reflect most recent information.

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See also:

• News Release: McGuinty government releases data on school discipline
• Discussion Paper: Safer Schools...Safer Communities (479 KB)
• Number of Students Suspended, Enrolment and Rate of Suspension by District School Boards and School Authorities during School Year 2000-2001 to 2003-2004 (19 KB)
• Number of Students Expelled, Enrolment and Rate of Expulsion by District School Boards and School Authorities during School Year 2000-2001 to 2003-2004 (17 KB)