A study released on Monday has revealed that autistic students are more likely to be suspended from school than non-autistic students.
The study which was originally published in the JAMA medical journal used data from students aged 5 to 16 years old from January 1 to 31 December 2018 which was collected by Statistics New Zealand.
Out of the students, 727,170 were not autistic and 9741 were autistic.
The research found the likelihood of an autistic student being suspended was far higher than a non-autistic student, with just over 500 autistic students facing suspension (5.2 percent), compared with 13,845 non-autistic students (1.9 percent)
The research also revealed that the Ministry of Education's ongoing resourcing scheme (ORS), which helps students with high needs, showed autistic students who use ORS are less likely to be faced with suspension.
Twenty-nine percent of autistic students in the study, received ORS high-need education-based funding.
The data revealed high needs-based education funding is needed to reduce the number of suspensions amongst autistic students in New Zealand.
According to the Ministry of Education, approximately 1 percent of the school population requires high-needs education-based funding.
Once a student receives the funding, they have it throughout their entire school life.
The research concluded more funding was needed for autistic students, so they can have a more inclusive education and not face the risk of suspension.
