Illinois Valley Times

White students, constituting 58.8% or 362 of John F. Kennedy Elementary School's total student population of 616, accounted for 16 out of the 20 total suspensions (80%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per 23 students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, John F. Kennedy Elementary School's 222 Hispanic students, who make up 36% of the school population, received two suspensions. This translates to an average of one suspension per 111 Hispanic students, which is definitively lower than that of white students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 20 total suspensions at John F. Kennedy Elementary School in the 2021-22 school year, four were in-school suspensions and 16 out-of-school suspensions.

During the 2021-22 school year, John F. Kennedy Elementary School reported 31 students - equivalent to 5% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 89 students, or 14.5% of the student population, fell into the chronically absent category, a broader measure that includes all absences, excused or not.

White students were notably overrepresented in these statistics, comprising 14.9% of all students who were 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.

Race	Number of Students	Total Infractions	Infractions Per Student
Hispanic	222	2	0.01
Multiracial	25	1	0.04
White	362	16	0.04