Chair of the Board Dr. Steven Isoye (2023) | Illinois State Board of education
Chair of the Board Dr. Steven Isoye (2023) | Illinois State Board of education
During the same period, Reba O. Steck Elementary School's 275 Asian students, who make up 43.2% of the school population, received one suspension. This translates to an average of one suspension per 275 Asian students, which is definitively lower than that of Black students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.
Of the 11 total suspensions at Reba O. Steck Elementary School in the 2021-22 school year, all of them were in-school suspensions.
According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, six student suspensions at Reba O. Steck Elementary School were for violence-related offenses.
The most common infraction causing suspension was violence offenses, tallying six cases - 54.5% of the total infractions.
In addition, 92 students, or 14.5% 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 26.7% 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black | 44 | 6 | 0.14 |
| Asian | 275 | 1 | 0 |
| White | 219 | 4 | 0.02 |
Alerts Sign-up