East Central Reporter

Effingham Community Unit School District 40 reported 189 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 189 students during the year. This equates to eight percent of the 2,294 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for two incidents with violence that caused physical injury, two incidents with violence without physical injury, 20 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, four 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 42. For 33 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 138 suspensions, while 51 girls were suspended.

There were 78 elementary or middle school students, and 111 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 117. There were 18 incidents of tobacco. For 92 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	2
Violence with injury	0	2
Violence without injury	0	2
Drug offenses	0	4
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	0	2
Tobacco	0	18
Other reason	42	117
Total	42	147

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	0	0
1-2 days	33	9
2-3 days	7	9
3-4 days	2	92
4-10 days	0	37
More than 10 days	0	0