Rockford Sun

Black students, constituting 2.7% or 11 of Caledonia Elementary School's total student population of 406, accounted for 10 out of the 29 total suspensions (34.5%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per student, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Caledonia Elementary School's 291 white students, who make up 71.7% of the school population, received 17 suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 17 white students, which is definitively lower than that of Black students.

In contrast, Hispanic students, who make up 20.4% of the student body at Caledonia Elementary School, had the lowest suspension ratio with an average of roughly one suspension per 42 Hispanic students, totaling two suspensions. This rate is definitively lower than that of Black students, establishing them as the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 29 total suspensions at Caledonia Elementary School in the 2021-22 school year, 17 were in-school suspensions and 12 out-of-school suspensions.

During the 2021-22 school year, Caledonia Elementary School reported 34 students - equivalent to 8.4% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 92 students, or 22.7% 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	83	2	0.02
Black	11	10	0.91
White	291	17	0.06