South Cook News

Black students, constituting 22.6% or 119 of Kolmar Elementary School's total student population of 526, accounted for 11 out of the 14 total suspensions (78.6%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per 11 students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Kolmar Elementary School's 234 Hispanic students, who make up 44.5% of the school population, received two suspensions. This translates to an average of one suspension per 117 Hispanic students, which is definitively lower than that of Black students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 14 total suspensions at Kolmar Elementary School in the 2021-22 school year, all of them were out-of-school suspensions.

In addition, 208 students, or 39.6% 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 46.9% 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	234	2	0.01
Black	119	11	0.09
Multiracial	24	1	0.04