White working-class students are punished more than any other group, the Education Secretary has warned as she calls on parents to do more to tackle bad behaviour.
One in 10 white pupils who receive free school meals were suspended in the last academic year, according to the National Behaviour Survey.
This is the highest suspension rate of any group except for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children, who are much fewer in number.
Figures also show that students from white working-class backgrounds are more likely to miss school and be expelled following suspension.
Bridget Phillipson has urged parents to do more to help improve standards of behaviour
| PANow, Bridget Phillipson has urged parents to do more to help improve standards of behaviour.
She said: "I am calling on parents, schools and families to join us in playing their part to get children in class and ready to learn for the start of the new school term.
"We have already made progress with five million more days in school this year, and are backing parents and supporting schools through our Plan for Change.
"But we all need to do more, and when it comes to getting kids in and behaving - this includes mums, dads and carers too."
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Students from white working-class backgrounds are more likely to miss school
|PA
The Education Secretary also warned that, by the age of 24, students who were suspended are three times more likely to end up living a life on sickness benefits
Data from the Department of Education (DfE) showed that pupils who are regularly absent from school will on average earn £10,000 per year than their peers by the age of 28.
Ms Phillipson wrote in The Telegraph: "Absence leads to lower attainment and robs children of their earning ability.
"It's not just exam grades or attendance figures - it's generations of talent wasted, of young people locked out of the chance to contribute to our society and economy.
The Education Secretary warned of the long-term implications of students missing school
|PA
"The dislocation of these young people, often isolated from their communities, has profound implications not just for those young people, but for society as a whole.
"It is only this Government that has the courage to upend a system that has resolutely failed white working-class children."
The "sobering" figures show that white children who receive free school meals are five times more likely to be suspended, and six times more likely to be expelled.
Earlier this month when students across the country opened their GCSE results, Ms Phillipson admitted that the "state has failed white working-class pupils".
She added: "In 2024, only 19 per cent of white British, working-class children achieved a strong pass in maths and English GCSE."