Chambana Sun

Black students, constituting 38.7% or 110 of Thomas Paine Elementary School's total student population of 284, accounted for 57 out of the 66 total suspensions (86.4%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per two students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Thomas Paine Elementary School's 108 white students, who make up 38% of the school population, received five suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 22 white students, which is definitively lower than that of Black students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 66 total suspensions at Thomas Paine Elementary School in the 2021-22 school year, nine were in-school suspensions and 57 out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, 19 student suspensions at Thomas Paine Elementary School were for violence-related offenses.

The most common infraction causing suspension was violence offenses, tallying 19 cases - 28.8% of the total infractions.

During the 2021-22 school year, Thomas Paine Elementary School reported 79 students - equivalent to 27.7% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 115 students, or 40.5% 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 52.9% of all students who were chronically truant, and 59.1% 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
Hispanic	20	2	0.1
Black	110	57	0.52
Multiracial	37	2	0.05
White	108	5	0.05