Chambana Sun

Urbana School District 116 reported 1,274 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 1274 students during the year. This equates to 30 percent of the 4,208 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for 47 incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 350 incidents with violence without physical injury, 24 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, nine incidents with drugs, six 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 331. There were 32 incidents of violence without injury. For 176 incidents, students were suspended for a day or less.

Boy students received 819 suspensions, while 454 girls were suspended.

There were 957 elementary or middle school students, and 317 high school students suspended in 2021-22 school year.

The district reported that most out-of-school suspensions were given for unspecified reasons, of which there were 507. There were 318 incidents of violence without injury. For 380 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	16
Violence with injury	0	47
Violence without injury	32	318
Drug offenses	5	4
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	1	5
Tobacco	1	7
Other reason	331	507
Total	370	904

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	176	27
1-2 days	166	380
2-3 days	24	193
3-4 days	3	180
4-10 days	1	119
More than 10 days	0	5