South Central Reporter

Taylorville Community Unit School District 3 reported 325 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 325 students during the year. This equates to 14 percent of the 2,247 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for 36 incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 46 incidents with violence without physical injury, 82 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, two incidents with drugs.

The district reported that most in-school suspensions were given for unspecified reasons, of which there were 134. There were 77 incidents of tobacco. For 100 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 226 suspensions, while 99 girls were suspended.

There were 208 elementary or middle school students, and 117 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 25. There were eight incidents of violence without injury. For 17 incidents, students were suspended for one to two 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	34	2
Violence without injury	38	8
Drug offenses	1	1
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	0	0
Tobacco	77	5
Other reason	134	25
Total	284	41

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	30	0
1-2 days	100	17
2-3 days	45	11
3-4 days	95	9
4-10 days	14	4
More than 10 days	0	0