The Ministry of Education has collected, verified and made public suspension and expulsion data from school boards for the most recently available school year, 2006-07. This is the fourth year that this data is being posted on the Ministry website.
The following is a summary of provincial data:
Suspension Data:
Overall
- 115,374 students were suspended or 5.49% of all students attending Ontario schools
- 206,858 total suspensions were issued, accounting for multiple suspensions for individual students.
Level
- 48,167 or 42% were elementary students (3.5% of all elementary students)
- 67,207 or 58% were secondary students (9.4% of all secondary students)
Gender
- 28,009 or 24% were female students (2.7% of all female students)
- 87,365 or 76% were male students (8.1% of male students)
Exceptionality*
- 24,047 or 21% of suspended students were students with exceptionalities (8.4% 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 2006-2007 ranged from 0.66% of students to 12.48% of students (see Table 1).
Table 1
Forty school boards had suspension rates between 5.1% and 10%. Nine boards had a rate of 10.1% or more, while twenty-three had a rate below 5%.
Expulsion Data:
Overall
- 1,889 students were expelled or 0.09% of all students.
- Of these, almost 87% were for limited expulsions – any where from 20 days to one year. Approximately 13% were for full expulsions.
Level
- 263 or 14% were elementary students (0.02% of all elementary students)
- 1,626 or 86% were secondary students (0.2% of all secondary students)
Gender
- 1,653 of expelled students or 88% were boys (0.2% of all male students)
- 236 of expelled students or 12% were girls (0.02% of all female students)
Exceptionality
- 411 or 21.8% of expelled students were students with exceptionalities
Range
- Fourteen boards did not expel any students in 2006-07. Among the boards that expelled students, there was a very wide range of expulsion rates among boards from 0.006% (1 student) to 0.37% (267 students).
