Rockford Sun

Harlem Unit School District 122 reported 2,270 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 2270 students during the year. This equates to 37 percent of the 6,188 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for 176 incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 138 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, 67 incidents with drugs, one incident 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 1,296. There were 93 incidents of tobacco. For 1,182 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 1,423 suspensions, while 847 girls were suspended.

There were 1,259 elementary or middle school students, and 1,011 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 592. There were 151 incidents of violence with injury. For 288 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	5
Violence with injury	25	151
Violence without injury	0	0
Drug offenses	0	67
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	0	1
Tobacco	93	40
Other reason	1296	592
Total	1414	856

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	67	19
1-2 days	1182	288
2-3 days	141	153
3-4 days	24	180
4-10 days	0	216
More than 10 days	0	0