Chambana Sun

Rantoul City School District 137 reported 963 suspensions or expulsions for the 2021-22 school year, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

According to the report, the district expelled or suspended 963 students during the year. This equates to 57 percent of the 1,686 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for 45 incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 475 incidents with violence without physical injury, five incidents with alcohol and tobacco, six incidents with drugs, 13 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 273. There were 209 incidents of violence without injury. For 240 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 648 suspensions, while 315 girls were suspended.

There were 963 elementary or middle 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 266. There were 146 incidents of unspecified reasons. For 222 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	3
Violence with injury	12	33
Violence without injury	209	266
Drug offenses	0	6
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	1	12
Tobacco	0	2
Other reason	273	146
Total	495	468

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	168	65
1-2 days	240	222
2-3 days	80	104
3-4 days	6	45
4-10 days	1	32
More than 10 days	0	0