NW Illinois News

Freeport School District 145 reported 1,722 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 1722 students during the year. This equates to 50 percent of the 3,427 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for 125 incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 401 incidents with violence without physical injury, 61 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, 13 incidents with drugs, one incident witha dangerous weapon firearm,13 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 788. There were 98 incidents of violence without injury. For 725 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 1,059 suspensions, while 663 girls were suspended.

There were 876 elementary or middle school students, and 846 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 320. There were 303 incidents of violence without injury. For 307 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	29	96
Violence without injury	98	303
Drug offenses	3	10
Firearm	0	1
Other dangerous weapons	4	9
Tobacco	43	15
Other reason	788	320
Total	965	757

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	198	61
1-2 days	725	307
2-3 days	36	201
3-4 days	6	126
4-10 days	0	62
More than 10 days	0	0