SE Illinois News

Harrisburg Community Unit School District 3 reported 145 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 one student to alternative settings instead of suspending or expelling them. This equates to less than one percent of the 1,761 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for four incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 57 incidents with violence without physical injury, seven incidents with alcohol and tobacco, six incidents with drugs, two 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 19. There were two incidents of violence without injury. For 14 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 98 suspensions, while 47 girls were suspended.

There were 108 elementary or middle school students, and 37 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 55. There were 50 incidents of unspecified reasons. For 44 incidents, students were suspended for three to four 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	0
Violence with injury	0	4
Violence without injury	2	55
Drug offenses	1	5
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	0	2
Tobacco	0	7
Other reason	19	50
Total	22	123

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	2	1
1-2 days	14	26
2-3 days	4	36
3-4 days	2	44
4-10 days	0	16
More than 10 days	0	0