Rockford Sun

Belvidere Consolidated Unit School District 100 reported 2,126 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 2126 students during the year. This equates to 29 percent of the 7,457 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for nine incidents with violence that caused physical injury, four incidents with violence without physical injury, 26 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, 138 incidents with drugs, five incidents witha dangerous weapon firearm,25 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 1,328. There were 71 incidents of drug offense. For 824 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 1,584 suspensions, while 540 girls were suspended.

There were 675 elementary or middle school students, and 1,451 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 591. There were 67 incidents of drug offense. For 251 incidents, students were suspended for four to 10 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	4	5
Violence without injury	4	0
Drug offenses	71	67
Firearm	2	3
Other dangerous weapons	7	18
Tobacco	10	16
Other reason	1328	591
Total	1426	700

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	384	37
1-2 days	824	192
2-3 days	159	122
3-4 days	56	93
4-10 days	3	251
More than 10 days	0	5