West Cook News

Elmwood Park Community Unit School District 401 reported 71 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 71 students during the year. This equates to three percent of the 2,788 students enrolled.

Students were expelled for one incident with violence that caused physical injury, 16 incidents with violence without physical injury, six incidents with alcohol and tobacco, six incidents with drugs, two incidents witha dangerous weapon firearm,two 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 five. For three incidents, students were suspended for one to two days.

Boy students received 50 suspensions, while 21 girls were suspended.

There were 44 elementary or middle school students, and 27 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 33. There were 16 incidents of violence without injury. For 33 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	0	0
Violence with injury	0	1
Violence without injury	0	16
Drug offenses	0	6
Firearm	0	2
Other dangerous weapons	0	2
Tobacco	0	6
Other reason	5	33
Total	5	66

	In-school Suspension	Out-of-school Suspension
One day or less	2	1
1-2 days	3	33
2-3 days	0	3
3-4 days	0	14
4-10 days	0	15
More than 10 days	0	0