Discipline at Warren Park School: Black students most affected in 2021-22 school year

Warren Park School Principal Mrs. Raquel Jenke (2023) | Warren Park School

By West Cook News

Nov 27, 2023

Black students, constituting 4.1% or 25 of Warren Park School's total student population of 614, accounted for 16 out of the 37 total suspensions (43.2%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per two students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Warren Park School's 584 Hispanic students, who make up 95.1% of the school population, received 21 suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 28 Hispanic students, which is definitively lower than that of Black students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 37 total suspensions at Warren Park School in the 2021-22 school year, 12 were in-school suspensions and 25 out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, one student suspension at Warren Park School was for a violence-related offense.

During the 2021-22 school year, Warren Park School reported 147 students - equivalent to 24% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 243 students, or 39.6% 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 46.2% of all students who were chronically truant, and 53.8% of the 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.

Warren Park School Infractions by Black Students Over 5 Years