Macon Reporter

Decatur School District 61 reported 2,854 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 2854 students during the year. This equates to 35 percent of the 8,147 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for 1,157 incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 234 incidents with violence without physical injury, 108 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, 51 incidents with drugs, 37 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 360. There were 102 incidents of violence with injury. For 355 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 1,795 suspensions, while 1,048 girls were suspended.

There were 1,478 elementary or middle school students, and 1,376 high school students suspended in 2021-22 school year.

The district reported that most out-of-school suspensions were given for violence with injury, of which there were 1,055. There were 907 incidents of unspecified reasons. For 798 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	102	1055
Violence without injury	36	198
Drug offenses	2	49
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	4	33
Tobacco	3	105
Other reason	360	907
Total	507	2347

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	74	186
1-2 days	355	798
2-3 days	48	423
3-4 days	25	624
4-10 days	5	314
More than 10 days	0	2