Kendall County Times

Black students, constituting 16.3% or 90 of Charles Reed Elementary School's total student population of 551, accounted for nine out of the 12 total suspensions (75%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging one suspension per 10 students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Charles Reed Elementary School's 239 white students, who make up 43.4% of the school population, received one suspension. This translates to an average of one suspension per 239 white students, which is definitively lower than that of Black students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 12 total suspensions at Charles Reed Elementary School in the 2021-22 school year, two were in-school suspensions and 10 out-of-school suspensions.

During the 2021-22 school year, Charles Reed Elementary School reported 15 students - equivalent to 2.7% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 71 students, or 12.8% 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 16.3% 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	179	1	0.01
Black	90	9	0.1
Asian	14	1	0.07
White	239	1	0