East Central Reporter

Arcola Consolidated Unit School District 306 reported 71 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 71 students during the year. This equates to 10 percent of the 701 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for one incident with violence that caused physical injury, 16 incidents with violence without physical injury, 14 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, nine incidents with drugs.

The district reported that most in-school suspensions were given for unspecified reasons, of which there were 17. There were seven incidents of violence without injury. For 26 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 40 suspensions, while 31 girls were suspended.

There were 21 elementary or middle school students, and 50 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 14. There were nine incidents of violence without injury. For 11 incidents, students were suspended for a day or less.

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	1
Violence without injury	7	9
Drug offenses	1	8
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	0	0
Tobacco	7	7
Other reason	17	14
Total	32	39

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	5	11
1-2 days	26	10
2-3 days	1	7
3-4 days	0	3
4-10 days	0	8
More than 10 days	0	0