NW Illinois News

Black students, constituting 21.5% or 59 of Black Hawk Elementary School's total student population of 274, accounted for eight out of the 19 total suspensions (42.1%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per seven students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Black Hawk Elementary School's 102 Hispanic students, who make up 37.2% of the school population, received two suspensions. This translates to an average of one suspension per 51 Hispanic students, which is definitively lower than that of Black students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 19 total suspensions at Black Hawk Elementary School in the 2021-22 school year, 11 were in-school suspensions and eight out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, eight student suspensions at Black Hawk Elementary School were for violence-related offenses.

The most common infraction causing suspension was violence offenses, tallying eight cases - 42.1% of the total infractions.

During the 2021-22 school year, Black Hawk Elementary School reported 57 students - equivalent to 20.7% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 88 students, or 32.2% 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 34% 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	102	2	0.02
Black	59	8	0.14
Multiracial	41	2	0.05
White	69	7	0.1