DeKalb Times

Black students, constituting 53.2% or 158 of Tyler Elementary School's total student population of 297, accounted for 68 out of the 91 total suspensions (74.7%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per two students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Tyler Elementary School's 67 white students, who make up 22.6% of the school population, received seven suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 10 white students, which is definitively lower than that of Black students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 91 total suspensions at Tyler Elementary School in the 2021-22 school year, 34 were in-school suspensions and 57 out-of-school suspensions.

During the 2021-22 school year, Tyler Elementary School reported 112 students - equivalent to 37.8% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 151 students, or 51% 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 53.3% of all students who were chronically truant, and 59.4% 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.

Race	Number of Students	Total Infractions	Infractions Per Student
Hispanic	35	4	0.11
Black	158	68	0.43
Multiracial	35	12	0.34
White	67	7	0.1