South Cook News

Chicago Heights School District 170 reported 536 suspensions or expulsions for the 2021-22 school year, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

The district removed four students to alternative settings instead of suspending or expelling them. This equates to less than one percent of the 2,654 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for 181 incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 120 incidents with violence without physical injury, 11 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, 23 incidents with drugs, six 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 158. There were 125 incidents of violence with injury. For 160 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 324 suspensions, while 212 girls were suspended.

There were 536 elementary or middle school students suspended in 2021-22 school year.

The district reported that most out-of-school suspensions were given for violence with injury, of which there were 56. There were 37 incidents of unspecified reasons. For 58 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	0
Violence with injury	125	56
Violence without injury	87	33
Drug offenses	13	10
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	0	6
Tobacco	11	0
Other reason	158	37
Total	394	142

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	1	0
1-2 days	160	58
2-3 days	64	29
3-4 days	119	23
4-10 days	50	32
More than 10 days	0	0