Colona School District 190 students suspended 61 times during 2023-24 school year

Jason Helfer Chief Education Officer - Instruction | Twitter

By Rock Island Today Reports

Jul 16, 2025

Colona School District 190 reported 61 suspensions just during the 2023-24 school year, according to the Illinois Report Card.

In total, there were 61 disciplinary actions recorded during the school year, representing a rate of approximately 16.3 incidents per 100 of the district’s enrolled students.

Among in-school suspensions all cases were classified under "other reason" or left unspecified.

There were 57 disciplinary incidents involving male students. Another four incidents involved female students.

All 61 suspensions issued in the district involved elementary or middle school students.

In terms of ethnicity, white students, who made up 75.5% of the Colona School District 190 student body, were suspended the most in the district, with 53 suspensions reported during the 2023-24 school year. They were followed by Hispanic students, who made up 15.5% of the student body, and received four suspensions.

Illinois has approved a 2025 budget that allocates $8.6 billion to K-12 education, a $350 million increase from the previous fiscal year—the minimum required under the state funding formula.

In 2024, Illinois registered a teacher retention rate of almost 90%. Yet, around 91% of superintendents reported having a 'serious' problem teacher shortage problem. In total, almost 4,100 teaching positions remained vacant by the end of the year.

“They’re putting a substitute in there, that’s somebody with a four-year degree that’s not in teaching. They’re using a retired teacher…or worse than that, they’re canceling the class, putting the kids in other classrooms, putting them in study hall, but those are strategies we have to use if there’s no qualified teacher,” said Beth Crider, regional superintendent of Peoria County Regional Office of Education #48.

Colona School District 190 Student Discipline Report