Before you start thinking that there is a radical new health or safety (or better still, health and safety) measure in place to ban hundreds and thousands biscuits in schools, a more serious matter is at stake: are schools banning hundreds and thousands of students?

This matters, because OECD data shows that school systems that transfer disruptive students out of schools, as a system, tend to perform lower and are less equitable. And of course, it matters greatly for the individual students being pushed around the system.

In bold sensationalist headlines last week, The New Zealand Herald reported that ‘Schools Ban Hundreds’. Recently released Ministry of Education data shows that in 2012 around 3,000 students were suspended pending a further decision by Boards of Trustees. Of those students, 1,200 were then expelled or excluded - in other words, hundreds were banned outright from their school.

What wasn’t reported was that, actually, schools ban thousands. In 2012, around 13,000 New Zealand students were temporarily banned for up to five days. Schools use these ‘stand-downs’ like a time-out: a temporary measure to give students time to think about their naughty behaviour. But is this really a problem?

These ‘stand-downs’ are not the kinds of suspensions the OECD is worried about. The figures look stark, but digging deeper, there is a good news story hidden under the exclamatory headlines.

While stand-downs have remained fairly steady since 2000, the more serious long-term exclusions have fallen dramatically, with declines of 40% in suspensions, 33% in exclusions, and 44% in expulsions.

Just over 1,000 students younger than 16 were excluded from school with the intention of those students enrolling elsewhere, while 137 students aged 16 and over were expelled. Put into percentage terms, respectively, that’s 0.2% of under-16- year-olds, and 0.1% those aged 16 plus. When you look at the numbers as a percentage, it is a relatively small problem.

And put into international context, while 16% of principals in OECD countries report that they would be very likely to transfer students to another school for low academic achievement, behavioural problems or special learning needs, only 3% of New Zealand principals say they would be very likely to do so.

I hate to be the bearer of good news, but New Zealand schools are working hard to include difficult students, with the lowest rates of serious school exclusions in 13 years, and internationally one of the most inclusive school systems in the world.