Locked Out: Understanding and Tackling Exclusion in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand

Schools work continually to keep students with challenging and difficult behaviour engaged in education. The message of this book is that more can and needs to be done. The audience of this book includes all those who work with excluded children: school, health and justice personnel; school trustees, parents and community workers. School exclusion is a world-wide practice that disproportionately affects children from groups identified as at-risk. These students come from low-income backgrounds, are indigenous Australians, MÄori and Pasifika students and many have disabilities. Being excluded from school is linked to low school achievement and youth offending, so keeping young people in school is crucial to the health of our communities. This is the first book to describe school exclusion practices in the local context in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. It presents accessible, locally based research and includes the voices of excluded students, their parents and those who speak for them. The second part of the book provides examples of research-based interventions that are proving effective. Common themes are early intervention, flexible approaches, robust communications and maintaining school connectedness. Excluding a child from school affects a wide range of practitioners who work to reduce poor life outcomes for young people. For this reason the authors of this book are drawn from the health, justice and education sectors in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. With forwards by Australia's National Children's Commissioner Megan Mitchell, and Judge Andrew Becroft, Principal Youth Court Judge for Aotearoa New Zealand.