Rock Island Today

Black students, constituting 4.9% or 14 of Lincoln-Irving Elementary School's total student population of 288, accounted for five out of the 29 total suspensions (17.2%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per three students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Lincoln-Irving Elementary School's 237 Hispanic students, who make up 82.3% of the school population, received 20 suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 12 Hispanic students, which is definitively lower than that of Black students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 29 total suspensions at Lincoln-Irving Elementary School in the 2021-22 school year, three were in-school suspensions and 26 out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, 18 student suspensions at Lincoln-Irving Elementary School were for violence-related offenses.

The most common infraction causing suspension was violence offenses, tallying 18 cases - 62.1% of the total infractions.

During the 2021-22 school year, Lincoln-Irving Elementary School reported 102 students - equivalent to 35.5% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 128 students, or 44.3% of the student population, fell into the chronically absent category, a broader measure that includes all absences, excused or not.

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.

Race	Number of Students	Total Infractions	Infractions Per Student
Hispanic	237	20	0.08
Black	14	5	0.36
White	20	3	0.15