Suspensions and exclusions are at record levels in England’s schools, and children with special educational needs and disabilities sit right at the centre of the picture. They are not a small part of the story. They are suspended and permanently excluded at far higher rates than children without identified needs, and the gap has not closed.
In the 2023/24 academic year, schools issued 955,000 suspensions and 10,900 permanent exclusions. This report sets out what the Department for Education’s official figures show about how exclusions fall on children with SEND, and points you to your rights if it happens to your child.
Exclusions are rising fast
Both suspensions and permanent exclusions jumped again in 2023/24, continuing a steep climb since the pandemic.
Suspensions rose from 787,000 in 2022/23 to 955,000 in 2023/24. Permanent exclusions rose from 9,400 to 10,900. Across all pupils, that is a suspension rate of 11.31 per 100 pupils. But that average hides a very uneven picture.
Children with SEND are suspended far more often
The clearest way to see the gap is to compare the suspension rate for pupils with no identified SEN against pupils on SEN support and pupils with an Education, Health and Care plan.
DfE, Suspensions and permanent exclusions in England, academic year 2023/24
Pupils on SEN support were suspended at 3.9 times the rate of pupils with no identified SEN, and pupils with an EHCP at 3.4 times the rate. (Those multiples are our calculation from the DfE rates above.) Note the order: pupils on SEN support, who by definition do not have the legal protection of a plan, had the highest suspension rate of all.
And permanently excluded far more often
The same pattern holds, even more starkly, for permanent exclusion, the most serious sanction a school can impose.
DfE, Suspensions and permanent exclusions in England, academic year 2023/24
A pupil on SEN support was around 5.1 times more likely to be permanently excluded than a pupil with no identified SEN. Given that children with SEND are a minority of all pupils, these rates mean they make up a large share of every suspension and exclusion handed out.
Disability discrimination law applies to exclusions. A school must not exclude a child for behaviour that is a result of their disability where reasonable adjustments could have been made instead. If your child has been excluded for behaviour linked to unmet needs, that may be unlawful discrimination.
The reason that is recorded
When schools record why they suspend, one reason dominates.
“Persistent disruptive behaviour” accounted for 51% of all reasons given for suspension, and 39% of reasons for permanent exclusion. For a child with unmet needs, behaviour the school reads as disruption is very often communication, distress, or an environment that is not working. That is exactly why the reason recorded on a letter is not the end of the story, and why the law asks whether the school did enough first.
Watch for informal exclusions. Being repeatedly sent home early, asked to keep a child off, or put on a reduced timetable without proper agreement is often unlawful, and it does not show up in these figures at all. The official totals are very likely an undercount of how much school time SEND children actually lose.
What this means, and your rights
A suspension or exclusion is not the final word, and there are clear routes to challenge one.
Ask for everything in writing and keep the dates. A school must give reasons for a suspension, and you have the right to make representations. Get the reason and the length recorded, especially if your child is simply being sent home.
- Start with school exclusions and your child’s rights, which explains the formal process and how to challenge a decision.
- If the exclusion relates to behaviour linked to your child’s needs, disability discrimination at school sets out the legal protection.
- If your child is on a reduced timetable or is increasingly unable to attend, that guide covers when a reduced timetable is unlawful and what you can do about it.
Methodology and sources
All the suspension and permanent exclusion figures are from the Department for Education’s official statistics release Suspensions and permanent exclusions in England, academic year 2023/24, published in July 2025. A suspension is a fixed-period exclusion and a permanent exclusion means the pupil does not return; both rates are expressed per 100 pupils, and because a pupil can be suspended more than once the suspension rate counts events rather than individual pupils.
The rates by SEN status (29.43 for SEN support, 25.62 for an EHCP, and 7.55 for no identified SEN for suspensions; 0.41, 0.26 and 0.08 for permanent exclusions) are quoted directly from that release. The “times more likely” multiples are our own calculation, dividing the DfE rates (for example 29.43 divided by 7.55). The reason figures and the year-on-year increases are also from the same release. Data accessed June 2026.