Suspensions at Schools in Austria Are Rising – Mandatory Support Starting in Autumn

The measure is formally imposed by the school administration and school supervision once pedagogical and educational means have been exhausted or there is an acute danger. The legal basis is found in the federal-state school compulsory education provisions. A suspension is therefore not a permanent expulsion but a temporary interruption of school attendance.

The Ministry of Education and the education directorates also point to a tendency that has been rising for years. The authorities attribute the increase, among other things, to a heightened perception of violence, bullying and substance use at schools, without breaking this down further in the available figures. The data was analyzed, among others, by the Austria Presse Agentur (APA).

Criticism from the Opposition and Demands

Criticism of the existing practice comes from the opposition party NEOS. The lawmakers complain that the school-law instruments are applied very differently across the federal states and that uniform standards are lacking. They are calling for nationwide harmonization and better data collection.

Mandatory Support Starting in the Coming School Year

Support for those affected will in future be provided through a new, mandatory support program. As the Ministry of Education announced, from the coming school year onward, all suspended children and young people must receive a binding support plan. The parents or legal guardians will be included in the program, and regular contact with the home school will be ensured.

The aim of the regulation is to make pedagogically productive use of the time spent under suspension and to make it easier for the students concerned to return to their class group. The education directorates point out that the interruption alone is not yet a solution and that, without support, there is a risk that the children will fall behind.

Pilot Phase and Scientific Evaluation

In the current 2025/26 school year, the measures are to be tested in a pilot phase in Vienna and Vorarlberg before they apply throughout Austria starting in the 2026/27 school year. The pilot phase will be accompanied by a scientific evaluation, the results of which are to feed into the nationwide rollout.

In parallel, school psychology services and youth welfare offices in the federal states are working on expanded counseling offerings. These are to be easily accessible for both the affected families and the teachers, supporting the handling of conflicts and incidents at schools.

Those responsible stress that, while a suspension may be necessary in difficult situations, it must not lead to the affected children falling behind. They therefore see the new mandatory support explicitly as a supplement to, and not a replacement for, existing educational measures.

The next statistical evaluations are expected at the end of the 2026/27 school year. The Ministry of Education and the education directorates announced that, in future, the figures will be published annually in a comparable form so that trends can be identified early on.

Overall, the rise shows that schools and school supervisory authorities are facing growing challenges. With mandatory support and a more uniform data basis, the handling of suspensions in Austria is to become more transparent and more consistent going forward.