McLean County Times

McLean County Unit School District 5 reported 3,055 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 3055 students during the year. This equates to 25 percent of the 12,393 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for nine incidents with violence that caused physical injury, four incidents with violence without physical injury, 106 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, 74 incidents with drugs, three incidents witha dangerous weapon firearm,32 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 1,989. There were 54 incidents of tobacco. For 1,649 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 2,027 suspensions, while 1,025 girls were suspended.

There were 1,715 elementary or middle school students, and 1,340 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 838. There were 49 incidents of tobacco. For 364 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	3
Violence with injury	3	6
Violence without injury	2	2
Drug offenses	35	39
Firearm	1	2
Other dangerous weapons	13	19
Tobacco	54	49
Other reason	1989	838
Total	2097	958

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	258	44
1-2 days	1649	364
2-3 days	163	215
3-4 days	19	155
4-10 days	8	180
More than 10 days	0	0