IL Superintendent of Education Tony Sanders (2023) | Illinois State Board of education
IL Superintendent of Education Tony Sanders (2023) | Illinois State Board of education
During the same period, Rock Cut Elementary School's 207 white students, who make up 50.1% of the school population, received 27 suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per eight white students, which is definitively lower than that of Black students.
In contrast, Hispanic students, who make up 31% of the student body at Rock Cut Elementary School, had the lowest suspension ratio with an average of roughly one suspension per 21 Hispanic students, totaling six suspensions. This rate is definitively lower than that of Black students, establishing them as the best-behaved racial group in the school.
Multiracial students at Rock Cut Elementary School behaved worse than Hispanics, but better than Blacks, with five suspensions for 42 students in the 2021-22 school year - an average of roughly one suspension per eight multiracial students.
Of the 67 total suspensions at Rock Cut Elementary School in the 2021-22 school year, 53 were in-school suspensions and 14 out-of-school suspensions.
According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, five student suspensions at Rock Cut Elementary School were for violence-related offenses.
During the 2021-22 school year, Rock Cut Elementary School reported 59 students - equivalent to 14.3% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 102 students, or 24.7% of the student population, fell into the chronically absent category, a broader measure that includes all absences, excused or not.
Black students were notably overrepresented in these statistics, comprising 41.7% of all students who were chronically truant, and 36.1% of the chronically absent.
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 | 128 | 6 | 0.05 |
| Black | 28 | 28 | 1 |
| Multiracial | 42 | 5 | 0.12 |
| White | 207 | 27 | 0.13 |
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