The Ministry of Education has collected, verified and made public suspension and expulsion data from school boards for the most recently available school year, 2007-08. 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
- 94,647 students were suspended or 4.54% of all students attending Ontario schools
- 167,252 total suspensions were issued, accounting for multiple suspensions for individual students.
Level
- 35,419 or 37% were elementary students (2.6% of all elementary students)
- 59,228 or 63% were secondary students (8.3% of all secondary students)
Gender
- 23,453 or 25% were female students (2.3% of all female students)
- 71,194 or 75% were male students (6.6% of all male students)
Exceptionality*
* 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 2007-2008 ranged from 0.88% of students to 11.4% of students (see Table 1).
Table 1
Thirty-two school boards had suspension rates between 5.1% and 10%. Three boards had a rate of 10.1% or more, while thirty-seven had a rate below 5%.
Expulsion Data:
Overall
- 1,481 students were expelled or 0.07% of all students.
Level
- 193 or 13% were elementary students (0.01% of all elementary students)
- 1,288 or 87% were secondary students (0.2% of all secondary students)
Gender
- 1,287 of expelled students or 87% were boys (0.1% of all male students)
- 194 of expelled students or 13% were girls (0.02% of all female students)
Exceptionality
- 307 or 20.7% of expelled students were students with exceptionalities
Range
- Nineteen boards did not expel any students in 2007-08. Among the boards that expelled students, there was a very wide range of expulsion rates among boards from 0.004% (1 student) to 0.33% (9 students).
