Quantcast

South Cook News

Monday, July 14, 2025

Flossmoor School District 161 students suspended 542 times just in 2023-24 school year

Webp nlunl9s5i774df3g7djws8xy77yk

Dana Smith Superintendent at Flossmoor School District 161 | Official Website

Dana Smith Superintendent at Flossmoor School District 161 | Official Website

Flossmoor School District 161 reported 542 suspensions just during the 2023-24 school year, according to the Illinois Report Card.

In total, there were 542 disciplinary actions recorded during the school year, representing a rate of approximately 23.6 incidents per 100 of the district’s enrolled students.

Among in-school suspensions where a reason was specified, the most common cause was incidents involving violence that caused physical injury, with four recorded cases. There was also one incident involving a dangerous weapon other than a firearm. Additionally, 433 cases were classified under "other reason" or left unspecified.

There were 384 disciplinary incidents involving male students. Another 158 incidents involved female students.

All 542 suspensions issued in the district involved elementary or middle school students.

Out-of-school suspensions most commonly were for incidents involving violence that caused physical injury, a dangerous weapon other than a firearm, drugs, and tobacco, with four cases reported. Additionally, 100 cases were classified under the "other reason" category.

In terms of ethnicity, Black students, who made up 65.6% of the Flossmoor School District 161 student body, were suspended the most in the district, with 397 suspensions reported during the 2023-24 school year. They were followed by Hispanic students, who made up 15.4% of the student body, and received 70 suspensions.

Illinois has approved a 2025 budget that allocates $8.6 billion to K-12 education, a $350 million increase from the previous fiscal year—the minimum required under the state funding formula.

In 2024, Illinois registered a teacher retention rate of almost 90%. Yet, around 91% of superintendents reported having a 'serious' problem teacher shortage problem. In total, almost 4,100 teaching positions remained vacant by the end of the year.

“They’re putting a substitute in there, that’s somebody with a four-year degree that’s not in teaching. They’re using a retired teacher…or worse than that, they’re canceling the class, putting the kids in other classrooms, putting them in study hall, but those are strategies we have to use if there’s no qualified teacher,” said Beth Crider, regional superintendent of Peoria County Regional Office of Education #48.

Flossmoor School District 161 Student Discipline Report
Type of IncidentIn-School SuspensionOut-of-School Suspension
Alcohol--
Violence with injury41
Violence without injury--
Drug offenses-1
Firearm--
Other dangerous weapons11
Tobacco-1
Other reason433100
Total438104
Length of Suspensions
DurationIn-School SuspensionOut-of-School Suspension
One day or less233
1-2 days37146
2-3 days2630
3-4 days1617
4-10 days26
More than 10 days-2

!RECEIVE ALERTS

The next time we write about any of these orgs, we’ll email you a link to the story. You may edit your settings or unsubscribe at any time.
Sign-up

DONATE

Help support the Metric Media Foundation's mission to restore community based news.
Donate

MORE NEWS