Rockford Sun

South Beloit Community Unit School District 320 reported 198 suspensions or expulsions for the 2021-22 school year, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

According to the report, the district expelled or suspended 198 students during the year. This equates to 22 percent of the 913 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for two incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 24 incidents with violence without physical injury, 18 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, 11 incidents with drugs, one incident witha dangerous weapon firearm.

The district reported that most in-school suspensions were given for unspecified reasons, of which there were 24. There were four incidents of violence without injury. For 24 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 139 suspensions, while 59 girls were suspended.

There were 83 elementary or middle school students, and 115 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 118. There were 20 incidents of violence without injury. For 55 incidents, students were suspended for one to two 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	0
Violence with injury	0	2
Violence without injury	4	20
Drug offenses	0	11
Firearm	0	1
Other dangerous weapons	0	0
Tobacco	3	15
Other reason	24	118
Total	31	167

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	2	13
1-2 days	24	55
2-3 days	5	51
3-4 days	0	20
4-10 days	0	28
More than 10 days	0	0