Kendall County Times

Yorkville Community Unit School District 115 reported 1,310 suspensions just during the 2023-24 school year, according to the Illinois Report Card.

In total, there were 1,310 disciplinary actions recorded during the school year, representing a rate of approximately 18.6 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 without physical injury, with 56 recorded cases. There were also 49 incidents involving drugs. Additionally, 837 cases were classified under "other reason" or left unspecified.

There were 975 disciplinary incidents involving male students. Another 335 incidents involved female students.

Of all suspensions issued in the district, 429 involved elementary or middle school students, while 881 involved high school students.

Out-of-school suspensions most commonly were for incidents involving violence without physical injury, with 71 cases reported. Additionally, 161 cases were classified under the "other reason" category.

In terms of ethnicity, white students, who made up 59.7% of the Yorkville Community Unit School District 115 student body, were suspended the most in the district, with 534 suspensions reported during the 2023-24 school year. They were followed by Hispanic students, who made up 24.2% of the student body, and received 411 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.

Type of Incident	In-School Suspension	Out-of-School Suspension
Alcohol	3	4
Violence with injury	-	-
Violence without injury	56	71
Drug offenses	49	52
Firearm	-	3
Other dangerous weapons	2	6
Tobacco	41	25
Other reason	837	161
Total	988	322

Duration	In-School Suspension	Out-of-School Suspension
One day or less	244	-
1-2 days	707	150
2-3 days	6	62
3-4 days	1	50
4-10 days	24	51
More than 10 days	6	9