Chambana Sun

Black students, constituting 25.3% or 72 of South Side Elementary School's total student population of 285, accounted for 14 out of the 16 total suspensions (87.5%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per five students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, South Side Elementary School's 161 white students, who make up 56.5% of the school population, received two suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 81 white students, which is definitively lower than that of Black students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 16 total suspensions at South Side Elementary School in the 2021-22 school year, one was in-school suspension and 15 out-of-school suspensions. Instead of opting for traditional suspensions or expulsions for some cases, the school administration decided to relocate two students to alternative educational settings.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, 14 student suspensions at South Side Elementary School were for violence-related offenses.

The most common infraction causing suspension was violence offenses, tallying 14 cases - 87.5% of the total infractions.

During the 2021-22 school year, South Side Elementary School reported 33 students - equivalent to 11.5% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 69 students, or 24.3% of the student population, fell into the chronically absent category, a broader measure that includes all absences, excused or not.

Black students were notably overrepresented in these statistics, comprising 34.4% of all students who were chronically truant, and 53.1% of the chronically absent.

In a broader context, data from the ProPublica database indicates that Black students are suspended at a rate 4.6 times higher than white students in Illinois—surpassing the already high national average rate of 3.9 times.

However, districts’ officials deny a direct link between these statistics and race. Lisa Small, the Superintendent of District 211, argues that these numbers oversimplify the situation. “Decisions are highly individualized and based on the specific behavior and are not well-suited to a simple numerical analysis,” she wrote in a statement. “They are not a statistic to us, but a developing young adult.”

Illinois ranks 12th in the nation for the highest rate of suspensions among Black students relative to their white peers.

Race	Number of Students	Total Infractions	Infractions Per Student
Black	72	14	0.19
White	161	2	0.01