DeKalb Times

Hiawatha Community Unit School District 426 reported 97 suspensions or expulsions for the 2021-22 school year, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

According to the report, the district expelled or suspended 97 students during the year. This equates to 23 percent of the 416 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for three incidents with alcohol and tobacco.

The district reported that most in-school suspensions were given for unspecified reasons, of which there were 64. There was one incident of alcohol. For 29 incidents, students were suspended for a day or less.

Boy students received 85 suspensions, while 12 girls were suspended.

There were 66 elementary or middle school students, and 31 high school students suspended in 2021-22 school year.

The district reported that most out-of-school suspensions were given for unspecified reasons, of which there were 30. There was one incident of alcohol. For 10 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Illinois ranks as the 5th state in terms of the overall number of schools and student enrollment among all states.

Illinois lawmakers enacted laws in 2015 to restrict schools from disciplining a disproportionate number of Black and minority students out of school and into the criminal justice system, often for minor misbehavior.

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
Alcohol	1	1
Violence with injury	0	0
Violence without injury	0	0
Drug offenses	0	0
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	0	0
Tobacco	1	0
Other reason	64	30
Total	66	31

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	29	0
1-2 days	25	10
2-3 days	11	10
3-4 days	1	8
4-10 days	0	3
More than 10 days	0	0