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, Benjamin Elementary School's 301 white students, who make up 52.2% of the school population, received six suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 50 white students, which is definitively lower than that of Black students.
Hispanic students at Benjamin Elementary School behaved worse than whites, but better than Blacks, with one suspension for 22 students in the 2021-22 school year - an average of one suspension per 22 Hispanic students.
In contrast, Asian students, who make up 33.4% of the student body at Benjamin Elementary School, had the lowest suspension ratio with an average of one suspension per 193 Asian students, totaling one suspension. This rate is definitively lower than that of Black students, establishing them as the best-behaved racial group in the school.
Of the 12 total suspensions at Benjamin Elementary School in the 2021-22 school year, eight were in-school suspensions and four out-of-school suspensions.
During the 2021-22 school year, Benjamin Elementary School reported 57 students - equivalent to 9.8% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 97 students, or 16.8% 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 25.6% of all students who were 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 | 22 | 1 | 0.05 |
| Black | 38 | 4 | 0.11 |
| Asian | 193 | 1 | 0.01 |
| White | 301 | 6 | 0.02 |
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