Centralia High School District 200 reports 109 incidents of students being suspended just in 2023-24 school year

Centralia High School District 200 reported 109 suspensions just during the 2023-24 school year, according to the Illinois Report Card.

In total, there were 109 disciplinary actions recorded during the school year, representing a rate of approximately 12.6 incidents per 100 of the district’s enrolled students.

There were 43 disciplinary incidents involving male students. Another 66 incidents involved female students.

All 109 suspensions issued in the district involved high school students.

Out-of-school suspensions most commonly were for incidents involving drugs, with five cases reported. Additionally, 97 cases were classified under the “other reason” category.

In terms of ethnicity, white students, who made up 68.9% of the Centralia High School District 200 student body, were suspended the most in the district, with 54 suspensions reported during the 2023-24 school year. They were followed by Black students, who made up 11.3% of the student body, and received 41 suspensions.

Illinois has approved a 2025 budget that allocates $8.6 billion to K-12 education, a $350 million increase from the previous fiscal year—the minimum required under the state funding formula.

In 2024, Illinois registered a teacher retention rate of almost 90%. Yet, around 91% of superintendents reported having a ‘serious’ problem teacher shortage problem. In total, almost 4,100 teaching positions remained vacant by the end of the year.

“They’re putting a substitute in there, that’s somebody with a four-year degree that’s not in teaching. They’re using a retired teacher…or worse than that, they’re canceling the class, putting the kids in other classrooms, putting them in study hall, but those are strategies we have to use if there’s no qualified teacher,” said Beth Crider, regional superintendent of Peoria County Regional Office of Education #48.