New suspension rules add mandatory support nationwide

New nationwide rules require schools to provide lessons and social measures during student suspensions, ORF reports. Teacher union representatives in Salzburg province warn that the measures could create significant additional administrative work.

Under the new rules, students must attend compulsory instruction and take part in social measures while suspended. Parents are also expected to assume greater responsibility.

Salzburg has had regulations governing suspension periods for years, while suspended students in other provinces effectively had free time. Last year, 133 suspensions were issued in Salzburg, and a suspension can last up to four weeks in serious cases.

Salzburg teacher union representative Anton Polivka said the measures were fundamentally positive. “Something has to happen during the suspension period. It cannot be free time for the child,” he said.

However, Polivka warned that schools would have to document compulsory meetings and other measures. “There will have to be filing cabinets for the documentation: these compulsory meetings here and there and their documentation. That will be enormously time-consuming,” he said.

He said he feared the number of suspensions could fall because schools might decide that the administrative burden was too high.

Suspensions can follow physical attacks, serious threats or intimidation, persistent harassment or denigration, and the deliberate destruction of property.

Salzburg Education Director Rudolf Mair said violence and serious breaches of duty had no place in the province’s schools.