Report: At Jane Addams Elementary School, Hispanic student rule-breaking rate notably exceeds that of white students

Chief Education Officer Jason Helfer (2023) | Illinois State Board of education

By Rock Island Today Reports

Nov 30, 2023

Hispanic students, constituting 10.8% or 31 of Jane Addams Elementary School's total student population of 288, accounted for four out of the six total suspensions (66.7%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per eight students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Jane Addams Elementary School's 138 white students, who make up 47.9% of the school population, received one suspension. This translates to an average of one suspension per 138 white students, which is definitively lower than that of Hispanic students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the six total suspensions at Jane Addams Elementary School in the 2021-22 school year, two were in-school suspensions and four out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, three student suspensions at Jane Addams Elementary School were for violence-related offenses.

The most common infraction causing suspension was violence offenses, tallying three cases - 50% of the total infractions.

During the 2021-22 school year, Jane Addams Elementary School reported 33 students - equivalent to 11.6% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 50 students, or 17.4% 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.

Jane Addams Elementary School Infractions by Hispanic Students Over 5 Years