Oswego Community Unit School District 308 reported 2,216 suspensions and two expulsions just during the 2023-24 school year, according to the Illinois Report Card.
In total, there were 2,218 disciplinary actions recorded during the school year, representing a rate of approximately 13.3 incidents per 100 of the district’s enrolled students.
The expulsions were issued for an incident involving violence without physical injury and an incident involving a firearm.
Among in-school suspensions where a reason was specified, the most common cause was incidents involving violence without physical injury, with 267 recorded cases. There were also 139 incidents involving tobacco. Additionally, 858 cases were classified under “other reason” or left unspecified.
There were 1,595 disciplinary incidents involving male students. Another 619 incidents involved female students, while the four non-binary students were involved in four incidents.
Of all suspensions issued in the district, 1,057 involved elementary or middle school students, while 1,159 involved high school students.
Out-of-school suspensions most commonly were for incidents involving violence without physical injury, with 182 cases reported. Additionally, 379 cases were classified under the “other reason” category.
In terms of ethnicity, white students, who made up 48% of the Oswego Community Unit School District 308 student body, were suspended the most in the district, with 684 suspensions reported during the 2023-24 school year. They were followed by Hispanic students, who made up 27.2% of the student body, and received 665 suspensions and were expelled once.
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.
| Type of Incident | In-School Suspension | Out-of-School Suspension | Expelled |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alcohol | 5 | 5 | – |
| Violence with injury | 86 | 80 | – |
| Violence without injury | 267 | 182 | 1 |
| Drug offenses | 102 | 78 | – |
| Firearm | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Other dangerous weapons | 15 | 8 | – |
| Tobacco | 139 | 9 | – |
| Other reason | 858 | 379 | – |
| Total | 1,473 | 743 | 2 |
| Duration | In-School Suspension | Out-of-School Suspension |
|---|---|---|
| One day or less | 296 | 95 |
| 1-2 days | 904 | 370 |
| 2-3 days | 251 | 173 |
| 3-4 days | 15 | 53 |
| 4-10 days | 7 | 47 |
| More than 10 days | – | 5 |
