SEND pupils far more likely to be shut in isolation rooms, disturbing data reveals

Children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are being pulled out of lessons and isolated at a far higher rate than their classmates, according to new figures obtained by The i Paper – and the gap is widening. Experts have warned the trend risks undermining the Government’s flagship reforms to make mainstream schools more inclusive, with one leading academic warning the system is “increasingly pushing vulnerable children into isolation” instead. The divide has been uncovered by an analysis of previously unpublished figures on hundreds of secondary schools’ use of internal suspension – often referred to as internal exclusion or isolation – a serious sanction involving the removal of disruptive pupils to separate classrooms for supposedly short spells. Shorts It comes after a tribunal criticised a school for removing a dysregulated autistic student to a room used for sanctions instead of a dedicated unit for anxious pupils. According to the data provided by hundreds of schools, in the academic year starting September 2025 to July 2026, 28.4 per cent of children with SEND at these schools were placed in internal suspension – compared with 16.8 per cent of children without a special educational need or disability. This means children with SEND are nearly 70 per cent more likely than their non-SEND peers to be internally suspended. A ‘worrying’ divide The data was shared exclusively with The i Paper by The Key Group, which sells behaviour management software to schools. The firm says it wants to inform the national debate. The software for collecting the data is reliant on schools self-reporting seclusions. Academics, policy experts and headteachers described the growing divide as “worrying” and urged the Government to investigate the findings. Ministers want more children with SEND educated in mainstream schools which are far cheaper and often closer to home than private specialist schools. Local authorities are buckling under the cost of educating children with SEND as the number in need of specialist support spirals. The Government’s plans – outlined in its February White paper – will see SEND support revamped with £3.7bn of funding. The proposals include establishing dedicated units (“inclusion bases”) in mainstream schools. It also includes plans to help schools avoid formal suspensions and expulsions by sanctioning pupils with internal suspensions instead – which the new data suggests is being disproportionately applied to SEND children. After The i Paper shared our analysis, the DfE said schools should scrutinise their internal suspension data to identify pupils who need extra support. But there is no legal requirement to collect this data or a standard way of doing so – meaning the figures can’t give a full picture of how long pupils were secluded for or why. Concerns over the impact of internal suspension rooms on SEND children and their families was revealed by The i Paper investigation earlier this year. Our analysis of 100 accounts found one 12-year-old boy became so distressed after being repeatedly placed in such rooms, he stabbed his mother in the hand with a cheese knife. SEND student’s family wins case against school The i Paper can also now reveal that the use of an internal suspension room at a major academy chain has been successfully challenged at a tribunal which found a school had harassed and discriminated against an autistic former pupil. In a rare case, a tribunal found that a secondary school run by an academy trust had an “inflexible adherence” to its behaviour policy and failed to make a “reasonable adjustment” for a pupil’s disability. The school repeatedly sent the student to its Ready For Learning removal room, which was always staffed, when they were dysregulated – rather than to its Learning Support Centre, a unit for anxious pupils, which was not always open. The student’s father claimed the school “nearly killed” his child, and said the stress suffered caused them to self-harm. He added that it was the school’s inability to admit their failings that compelled him to act.“The school was adamant that they had acted absolutely correctly. This is why we took the case to the tribunal. We wanted to be able to say to our child, look, this isn’t your fault.” The educational trust has since issued a formal apology to the family. A spokesperson said it was continuing “to review our approach to supporting pupils with additional needs, in line with our duties under the Equality Act 2010.” ‘Disproportionate exclusion of pupils with SEND’ Analysis of the Key Group data by Professor Neil Humphrey, a special educational needs researcher at the University of Manchester, suggests this inequality is getting “worryingly” worse. Among pupils with SEND, internal suspensions rose from 480 to 522 for every 100 pupils between 2024/25 and 2025/26, according to these figures. Over the same period the rate for pupils without SEND barely shifted from 203 to 212. “There is clear evidence of disproportionate application of internal exclusion to pupils with SEND,” Prof Humphrey told The i Paper. “Worryingly, the data from the last two school years appears to show a widening gap between those with and without SEND,” he added. “They expose a growing reality that threatens to directly undermine upcoming SEND reform efforts. Instead of becoming more inclusive, our system is increasingly pushing vulnerable children into isolation.” ‘Not evidence of discrimination by itself’ The lead behaviour adviser to the Department for Education, Tom Bennett, speaking in his capacity as an independent consultant, said the difference the data identified was “substantial” and should be examined but cautioned against extrapolating further. “It suggests a relatively small group of pupils may be experiencing internal exclusion repeatedly,” he added. “Schools could be asking themselves whether repeated sanctions are changing behaviour, and if other responses are required. But a disparity in outcomes is not, by itself, evidence of discrimination.” Anthony Benedict, chief executive of Manchester’s Ambition Community Trust, said the Government’s plans for more inclusive education came from a “good place” but that it risked running “blind” without proper funding, training, and investment in the workforce. “These figures should make us question whether suspension is really an inclusive response, or simply exclusion by another name,” he added. “When children with SEND are disproportionately removed from classrooms, we should be asking whether we are meeting their needs – or simply moving them out of sight.” The Education Policy Institute, an independent research body, which is researching “under the radar” exclusions in school says SEND pupils were caught in a “pincer movement”. As well as being more likely to be absent from school they were now being “pushed out” by high rates of permanent exclusions and internal suspensions, the institute’s researcher, Lily Wielar, told The i Paper. “That should sharpen the urgency to more closely investigate the use of internal exclusion in schools, particularly in regard to pupils with SEND.” The Department for Education said: “Having SEND is not the same as bad behaviour, and we are clear that the removal of any pupil from the classroom should only happen if absolutely necessary”. It planned to consult on the use of internal suspensions but was “clear that schools’ legal duties to make reasonable adjustments for disabled pupils are non-negotiable.”