McHenry Times

Multiracial students, constituting 5% or 23 of Kenneth E. Neubert Elementary School's total student population of 462, accounted for seven out of the 22 total suspensions (31.8%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per three students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Kenneth E. Neubert Elementary School's 323 white students, who make up 69.9% of the school population, received nine suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 36 white students, which is definitively lower than that of multiracial students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 22 total suspensions at Kenneth E. Neubert Elementary School in the 2021-22 school year, nine were in-school suspensions and 13 out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, seven student suspensions at Kenneth E. Neubert Elementary School were for violence-related offenses.

The most common infraction causing suspension was violence offenses, tallying seven cases - 31.8% of the total infractions.

During the 2021-22 school year, Kenneth E. Neubert Elementary School reported 30 students - equivalent to 6.5% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 71 students, or 15.4% 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
Hispanic	85	4	0.05
Black	10	1	0.1
Asian	21	1	0.05
Multiracial	23	7	0.3
White	323	9	0.03