Stand Downs, Suspensions and Exclusions: Potential Impacts of the 1998 Education Amendment (No. 2) Act

Abstract

This paper discusses the provisions of the Education Legislation Amendment Bill 1997 with regard to suspensions and expulsions, the first revisiting of these issues in legislation since 1978. It comments on the new emphasis on greater flexibility with the more ready availability of “stand downs” (the former principal’s suspension for a specified period of up to three days). It notes the more definite timelines surrounding “exclusions” (a redefinition of the former board confirmation of a suspension for an unspecified period) and the aim of creating plain language rules in the interests of fairer procedures more readily understood by all parties. The Bill was passed into law in the last week of the 1998 Parliamentary session. Varying incidences of suspensions and pressures for change from the time of the 1993 report of the Education and Science Committee on children absent from school are described. Policies complementary to the legislative changes to support schools and families are listed. The prospects of the new settlement concerning issues of school discipline and student access to education are discussed in terms of rival paradigms for the appropriate relationships of New Zealand schools to New Zealand families and communities – on the one hand an “Education market” and on the other a “network of schools”.