Safe Schools


Suspension and expulsion facts, 2005-06

The Ministry of Education has collected, verified and made public suspension and expulsion data from school boards for the most recently available school year, 2005-06. This is the third year that this data is being posted on the Ministry website. Overall, the number of students suspended or expelled has been declining.

The following is a summary of provincial data:

Suspension Data:

Overall

  • 122,130 students were suspended or 5.77 per cent of all students attending Ontario schools.
  • 214,268 total suspensions were issued, accounting for multiple suspensions for individual students.

Level

  • 53,441 or 44% were elementary students (3.8% of all elementary students)
  • 68,689 or 56% were secondary students (9.7% of all secondary students)

Gender

  • 29,653 or 24% were female students (2.9% of all female students)
  • 92,477 or 76% were male students (8.5% of male students)

Exceptionality*

  • 23,250 or 19% of suspended students were students with exceptionalities (8.0% 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

  • The suspension rate among boards in 2005-2006 ranged from 0.6% of students to 13.46% of students (see table 1).

Table 1
Table 1 – 2005/2006 Suspension Rates – Number of Boards by Suspension Rate Range

Thirty-Eight school boards had suspension rates between 5.1% and 10%. Eleven boards had a rate of 10.1% or more, while twenty-three boards had a rate below 5%.

Expulsion Data:

Overall

  • 1,480 students were expelled or 0.07% of all students.
  • Of these, almost 91% were for limited expulsions any where from 20 days to one year. Approximately 9% were for full expulsions.

Level

  • 247 or 17% were elementary students (0.02% of all elementary students)
  • 1,233 or 83% were secondary students (0.2% of all secondary students)

Gender

  • 1,264 of expelled students or 86% were boys (0.12% of all male students)
  • 216 of expelled students or 14% were girls (0.02% of all female students)

Exceptionality

  • 321 or 21.7% of expelled students were students with exceptionalities

Range

  • Thirteen boards did not expel any students in 2005-06. Among the boards that expelled students, there was a very wide range of expulsion rates among boards from 0.004% (1 student) to 0.426% (293 students)