Sangamon Sun

Rochester Community Unit School District 3A reported 53 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 53 students during the year. This equates to three percent of the 2,102 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for five incidents with violence that caused physical injury, 14 incidents with violence without physical injury, three incidents with alcohol and tobacco, one incident with drugs, one incident 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 19. There were 10 incidents of violence without injury. For 23 incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 43 suspensions, while 10 girls were suspended.

There were 37 elementary or middle school students, and 16 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 10. There were four incidents of violence without injury. For six incidents, students were suspended for two to three 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	0	0
Violence with injury	2	3
Violence without injury	10	4
Drug offenses	0	1
Firearm	0	0
Other dangerous weapons	1	0
Tobacco	3	0
Other reason	19	10
Total	35	18

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	3	1
1-2 days	23	4
2-3 days	5	6
3-4 days	4	3
4-10 days	0	4
More than 10 days	0	0