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The issue of pupils' behaviour, particularly that leading to exclusions, has captured current political and media interest. Exclusion from school has traditionally been regarded as the ultimate sanction. However, exclusions are now apparently on the increase to such an extent that the situation may be reaching crisis level. This article explores this issue further and draws out several factors which place the data in a broader perspective. What is exclusion?The term exclusion refers to the removal or expulsion of a child from school. This can be either permanently or for a fixed period of up to15 days in any one term. The power to exclude can only be exercised by the headteacher, and it is his or her duty to inform parents of the period and type of exclusion and the reasons for it.Thus, exclusions are bound up in strict legal procedures, primarily under the 1986 Education Act, with some amendments in the 1993 Education Act. Parents have the right to appeal against the decision of any school to exclude their child. The responsibility for arranging appeals lies in the case of local authority schools with the local education authority, and in the case of grant-maintained schools with the governing body of the grantmaintained school.National data on numbers of pupils excluded has tended to be based on evidence from individual authorities. The numbers differ between authorities but a common theme is that the number of exclusions taking place at both secondary and primary school level has increased, with a particularly dramatic increase at the secondary level.The Department for Education reported in 1993 through its National Exclusions Reporting System that 3,833 children had been permanently excluded in 1992. Imich [1] showed that there was a 50 per cent rise in permanent exclusions over a three-year period up to 1992. A survey by The Independent in June 1995 suggested that 11,000 children were permanently excluded from secondary schools in 1993-1994[2]. In 1995, Imich[3] presented the findings of a five-year longitudinal study into exclusions in one large local authority, at the annual 28 Dramatic increases