Will County Gazette

Plainfield School District 202 reported 2,790 suspensions or expulsions for the 2021-22 school year, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

The district removed 29 students to alternative settings instead of suspending or expelling them. This equates to less than one percent of the 24,904 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for 54 incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 186 incidents with violence without physical injury, 57 incidents with alcohol and tobacco, 186 incidents with drugs, 12 incidents witha dangerous weapon firearm,three incidents with a dangerous weapon, other than a firearm.

The district reported that most in-school suspensions were given for unspecified reasons, of which there were 1,664. There were 121 incidents of drug offense. For 1,210 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 1,961 suspensions, while 718 girls were suspended.

There were 1,458 elementary or middle school students, and 1,332 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 628. There were 104 incidents of violence without injury. For 316 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	2	3
Violence with injury	25	29
Violence without injury	82	104
Drug offenses	121	65
Firearm	3	9
Other dangerous weapons	2	1
Tobacco	33	19
Other reason	1664	628
Total	1932	858

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	370	113
1-2 days	1210	316
2-3 days	121	159
3-4 days	231	101
4-10 days	0	167
More than 10 days	0	2