Rockford Sun

White students, constituting 16.9% or 56 of Julia Lathrop Elementary School's total student population of 331, accounted for four out of the five total suspensions (80%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging one suspension per 14 students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Julia Lathrop Elementary School's 207 Hispanic students, who make up 62.5% of the school population, received one suspension. This translates to an average of one suspension per 207 Hispanic students, which is definitively lower than that of white students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the five total suspensions at Julia Lathrop Elementary School in the 2021-22 school year, all of them were out-of-school suspensions. In addition to suspensions, one student was expelled from the school. In addition to suspensions, one student was expelled from the school. Instead of opting for traditional suspensions or expulsions for some cases, the school administration decided to relocate two students to alternative educational settings.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, one student suspension at Julia Lathrop Elementary School was for a violence-related offense.

The most common infraction causing suspension, however, was other weapon offenses, tallying two cases - 40% of the total infractions.

During the 2021-22 school year, Julia Lathrop Elementary School reported 165 students - equivalent to 49.8% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 177 students, or 53.4% 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	207	1	0
White	56	4	0.07