Report reveals Black students face more discipline at Yorkville High School in 2021-22 school year

Vice Chair of the Board Dr. Donna S. Leak (2023) | Illinois State Board of education

By Kendall County Times

Dec 20, 2023

Black students, constituting 7.8% or 159 of Yorkville High School's total student population of 2,033, accounted for 155 out of the 591 total suspensions (26.2%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per student, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Yorkville High School's 1,321 white students, who make up 65% of the school population, received 206 suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per six white students, which is definitively lower than that of Black students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 591 total suspensions at Yorkville High School in the 2021-22 school year, 437 were in-school suspensions and 154 out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, 30 student suspensions at Yorkville High School were for violence-related offenses and 25 for those including drugs.

During the 2021-22 school year, Yorkville High School reported 244 students - equivalent to 12% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 461 students, or 22.7% 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 24.9% of all students who were chronically truant, and 30.1% of the 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.

Yorkville High School Infractions by Black Students Over 5 Years