Low school belonging and Not (being) in Employment, Education, or Training (NEET) are both signs of social exclusion. Yet little research has considered whether school belonging is a risk factor for NEET. Using two longitudinal cohorts from Australia (*N* = 17,692; 51% Boys), we explore this relationship. Controlling for a range of individual and school level covariates, we find that school belonging at age 15 is a consistent and practically significant predictor of NEET status at ages 16-20. We found that this relationship is not the product of school belonging lowering the chances of students graduating high-school. Rather, school belonging had a unique impact beyond graduation. Given the costs of NEET, school belonging is of significant policy concern.