Illinois State Board of education | Vice Chair of the Board Dr. Donna S. Leak (2023)
Illinois State Board of education | Vice Chair of the Board Dr. Donna S. Leak (2023)
During the same period, Benton Grade School K-4's 584 white students, who make up 94.7% of the school population, received eight suspensions. This translates to an average of one suspension per 73 white students, which is definitively lower than that of Hispanic students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.
Of the nine total suspensions at Benton Grade School K-4 in the 2021-22 school year, all of them were out-of-school suspensions.
During the 2021-22 school year, Benton Grade School K-4 reported 77 students - equivalent to 12.4% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 166 students, or 26.9% of the student population, fell into the chronically absent category, a broader measure that includes all absences, excused or not.
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 | 19 | 1 | 0.05 |
| White | 584 | 8 | 0.01 |
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