More than 400 students aged five and under were suspended from school in Suffolk, as the region is revealed to have the highest primary school suspension rate in England.
This is the seventh year in a row that Suffolk's primary school suspension rates have been ranked in the top three of the country.
1,895 suspensions were made across the 2021/22 academic year for primary, secondary and special schools - a figure which has doubled over the past ten years.
Permanent exclusions also hit a record high for Suffolk at 147 made, with 28 of these applying to primary school pupils.
Mitigating factors such as special education needs and disabilities (SEND) and receipt of free school meals impact the likelihood of students being suspended and excluded.
For example, SEND primary school children received three times as many permanent exclusions and were 16 times more likely to receive a suspension.
Children eligible for free school meals are also around five times as likely to be suspended as their peers.
Jack Abbott, former Labour education spokesman at Suffolk County Council and current Labour parliamentary candidate, said: "Something is clearly going badly wrong for the county to be consistently ranked as one of the worst areas in the country, with vulnerable children being disproportionately affected.
"As I've argued many times before, early years are crucial and we need to see far greater early intervention support, programmes dedicated to inclusion and fostering positive relationships between families and schools and real scrutiny and accountability where it is clear there is a problem with exclusions."
Rachel Hood, Suffolk County Council's cabinet member for education, SEND and skills, acknowledged that, while responsibility for exclusions lies with the school itself, they do not like to see mainstream placements breaking down.
She said: “We have established a new team to support families when children have been permanently excluded and, as a result, we have seen an increasing number of permanent exclusions overturned and rescinded in the current year."
Cllr Hood added that 27 schools have achieved the Inclusion Quality Mark and the permanent exclusion rate in those schools is significantly lower than the national average.
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