West Central Reporter

Black students, constituting 12.6% or 55 of Edison Elementary School's total student population of 435, accounted for 11 out of the 33 total suspensions (33.3%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging one suspension per five students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Edison Elementary School's 308 white students, who make up 70.8% of the school population, received 17 suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 18 white students, which is definitively lower than that of Black students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 33 total suspensions at Edison Elementary School in the 2021-22 school year, one was in-school suspension and 32 out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, 18 student suspensions at Edison Elementary School were for violence-related offenses.

The most common infraction causing suspension was violence offenses, tallying 18 cases - 54.5% of the total infractions.

During the 2021-22 school year, Edison Elementary School reported 57 students - equivalent to 13.2% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 72 students, or 16.6% 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 31.1% of all students who were chronically truant, and 32.8% of the 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	12	1	0.08
Black	55	11	0.2
Multiracial	40	3	0.08
White	308	17	0.06