Chambana Sun

Champaign Community Unit School District 4 reported 974 suspensions or expulsions for the 2021-22 school year, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

The district removed 631 students to alternative settings instead of suspending or expelling them. This equates to six percent of the 10,120 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for 507 incidents with violence without physical injury, 10 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, 23 incidents with drugs, 32 incidents with a dangerous weapon, other than a firearm.

The district reported that most in-school suspensions were given for unspecified reasons, of which there were 118. There were 27 incidents of violence without injury. For 139 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 672 suspensions, while 298 girls were suspended.

There were 667 elementary or middle school students, and 307 high school students suspended in 2021-22 school year.

The district reported that most out-of-school suspensions were given for violence without injury, of which there were 480. There were 284 incidents of unspecified reasons. For 428 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Illinois ranks as the 5th state in terms of the overall number of schools and student enrollment among all states.

Illinois lawmakers enacted laws in 2015 to restrict schools from disciplining a disproportionate number of Black and minority students out of school and into the criminal justice system, often for minor misbehavior.

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
Alcohol	0	1
Violence with injury	0	0
Violence without injury	27	480
Drug offenses	1	22
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	2	30
Tobacco	0	9
Other reason	118	284
Total	148	826

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	1	7
1-2 days	139	428
2-3 days	5	189
3-4 days	2	153
4-10 days	0	49
More than 10 days	1	0