How many times were students suspended or expelled in Community Unit School District 4 during 2023-24 school year?

Community Unit School District 4 reported 89 suspensions just during the 2023-24 school year, according to the Illinois Report Card.

In total, there were 89 disciplinary actions recorded during the school year, representing a rate of approximately 13.3 incidents per 100 of the district’s enrolled students.

Among in-school suspensions all cases were classified under “other reason” or left unspecified.

There were 61 disciplinary incidents involving male students. Another 28 incidents involved female students.

Of all suspensions issued in the district, 32 involved elementary or middle school students, while 57 involved high school students.

Out-of-school suspensions most commonly were for incidents involving drugs, with five cases reported. Additionally, 44 cases were classified under the “other reason” category.

All of the students suspended during the 2023-24 school year in Community Unit School District 4 were white, who made up 95.8% of the district’s student population.

Illinois has approved a 2025 budget that allocates $8.6 billion to K-12 education, a $350 million increase from the previous fiscal year—the minimum required under the state 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.