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) | Illinois State Board of education
During the same period, Summersville Grade School's 248 white students, who make up 88.6% of the school population, received 19 suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 13 white students, which is definitively lower than that of Black students.
In contrast, multiracial students, who make up 5% of the student body at Summersville Grade School, had the lowest suspension ratio with an average of one suspension per 14 multiracial 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 23 total suspensions at Summersville Grade School in the 2021-22 school year, 17 were in-school suspensions and six out-of-school suspensions.
According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, one student suspension at Summersville Grade School was for a violence-related offense.
During the 2021-22 school year, Summersville Grade School reported 12 students - equivalent to 4.4% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 30 students, or 10.7% 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black | 10 | 2 | 0.2 |
| Multiracial | 14 | 1 | 0.07 |
| White | 248 | 19 | 0.08 |
Alerts Sign-up