DuPage County students suspended or expelled 9,980 times solely in 2023-24 school year

School administrators within DuPage County reportedly handed out 9,972 suspensions and eight expulsions solely during the 2023-24 school year, according to the Illinois Report Card.

In total, there were 10,014 disciplinary actions recorded during the school year, of which 9,980 were suspensions or expulsions, representing an average of 0.1 actions per student in the county. There were an additional 34 cases of students being removed to alternative settings rather than being suspended or expelled.

The expulsions were issued for two incidents involving violence that caused physical injury, an incident involving drugs, an incident involving a firearm, and an incident involving a dangerous weapon other than a firearm.

Among the 226 schools in the county, Willowbrook High School reported the highest number of disciplinary actions at the time, with a total of 839—or 8.4% of all incidents countywide.

The county reported that most in-school suspensions where a reason was specified were given for incidents involving violence without physical injury, with 664 recorded cases. There were also 277 incidents involving tobacco. Additionally, 5,548 cases were classified under "other reason" or left unspecified.

There were 7,090 disciplinary incidents involving male students. Another 2,558 incidents involved female students.

Of all suspensions issued in the DuPage County schools, 4,073 involved elementary or middle school students, while 5,899 involved high school students.

Out-of-school suspensions most commonly were for incidents involving violence without physical injury, with 732 cases reported. Additionally, 1,518 cases were classified under the "other reason" category.

In terms of ethnicity, Hispanic students, who made up 25.6% of the student body in DuPage County schools, were suspended or expelled the most in the county, with 3,952 suspensions and seven expulsions reported during the 2023-24 school year (39.7% of all disciplinary actions). They were followed by white students, who made up 49% of the student body, and received 2,500 suspensions (25.1%).

Some schools or districts may not publish complete disciplinary data due to privacy protections or reporting limitations, which could affect the totals.

Illinois allocated $8.6 billion to K-12 education in its 2025 budget—a $350 million increase over FY 2024, meeting the minimum required under the state’s school 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.