McHenry Times

Community Unit School District 300 reported 2,779 suspensions or expulsions for the 2021-22 school year, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

The district removed seven students to alternative settings instead of suspending or expelling them. This equates to less than one percent of the 19,951 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for 165 incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 188 incidents with violence without physical injury, 68 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, 141 incidents with drugs, 30 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 1,710. There were 60 incidents of violence without injury. For 1,105 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 2,091 suspensions, while 647 girls were suspended.

There were 1,893 elementary or middle school students, and 886 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 477. There were 146 incidents of violence with injury. For 311 incidents, students were suspended for three to four 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	7
Violence with injury	19	146
Violence without injury	60	128
Drug offenses	13	128
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	2	28
Tobacco	58	3
Other reason	1710	477
Total	1862	917

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	504	17
1-2 days	1105	263
2-3 days	236	183
3-4 days	13	311
4-10 days	4	140
More than 10 days	0	3