As zero-tolerance policies become more commonplace at schools across Canada, more educators are looking for ways to stop suspended students from falling through the educational cracks.

In Toronto, a youth counsellor has an initiated a pilot project aimed at keeping at-risk pupils engaged in school, while in British Columbia a safe schools manager has launched an alternative suspension program.

While many school boards have alternative facilities where pupils who are expelled or suspended for more than 20 days can continue their studies, there is a gap in services for students facing short-term suspensions, said Dale Callender, a counsellor from Delisle Youth Services, which operates the Stop Gap program at Toronto's Northern Secondary.

According to statistics from the Toronto District School Board in the past school year, 85% of all student suspensions were of five days or less.

Launched in September, the Stop Gap program is an alternative, in-school suspension initiative that sees students receive intensive week-long support in a classroom setting.

"It all comes down to -- keep them in school," said Mr. Callender, who developed the pilot project after reviewing models from the United States and Australia. "If you can support a kid in their own home school you have a much better success rate at reaching them."

He said punishments that see pupils sent home are often counterproductive because there can be little supervision and students often view their time off as a reward, while in reality they fall further behind in their studies.

Theresa Campbell, safe schools manager for the Surrey School District in British Columbia, also recently launched an alternative suspension program. In iR3 (Intervention, Rethink, Refocus & Reintegrate) students in Grades 6 to 8 who otherwise would face first-time suspensions participate in a mentorship and character-building program at a local community centre.

More than 100 students went through a pilot program launched earlier this year, with 90% reporting it was better than being suspended, Ms. Campbell said.

"We have had some awesome preliminary results and noticeable behavior changes when they went back to school," said Ms. Campbell.