Chair of the Board Dr. Steven Isoye (2023) | Illinois State Board of education
Chair of the Board Dr. Steven Isoye (2023) | Illinois State Board of education
During the same period, Memorial Elementary School's 248 white students, who make up 91.2% of the school population, received seven suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 35 white students, which is definitively lower than that of multiracial students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.
Of the 10 total suspensions at Memorial Elementary School in the 2021-22 school year, three were in-school suspensions and seven out-of-school suspensions.
According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, five student suspensions at Memorial Elementary School were for violence-related offenses.
The most common infraction causing suspension was violence offenses, tallying five cases - 50% of the total infractions.
During the 2021-22 school year, Memorial Elementary School reported 49 students - equivalent to 18% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 49 students, or 18.1% of the student population, fell into the chronically absent category, a broader measure that includes all absences, excused or not.
In a broader context, data from the ProPublica database indicates that Black students are suspended at a rate 4.6 times higher than white students in Illinois—surpassing the already high national average rate of 3.9 times.
However, districts’ officials deny a direct link between these statistics and race. Lisa Small, the Superintendent of District 211, argues that these numbers oversimplify the situation. “Decisions are highly individualized and based on the specific behavior and are not well-suited to a simple numerical analysis,” she wrote in a statement. “They are not a statistic to us, but a developing young adult.”
Illinois ranks 12th in the nation for the highest rate of suspensions among Black students relative to their white peers.
| Race | Number of Students | Total Infractions | Infractions Per Student |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiracial | 16 | 2 | 0.13 |
| White | 248 | 7 | 0.03 |
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