Report: At North Side Primary Center, multiracial student rule-breaking rate notably exceeds that of white students

IL Superintendent of Education Tony Sanders (2023) | Illinois State Board of education

By Carbondale Reporter

Nov 28, 2023

Multiracial students, constituting 9.4% or 46 of North Side Primary Center's total student population of 491, accounted for five out of the 10 total suspensions (50%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per nine students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, North Side Primary Center's 400 white students, who make up 81.5% of the school population, received five suspensions. This translates to an average of one suspension per 80 white students, which is definitively lower than that of multiracial students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 10 total suspensions at North Side Primary Center in the 2021-22 school year, all of them were out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, five student suspensions at North Side Primary Center were for violence-related offenses.

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

During the 2021-22 school year, North Side Primary Center reported 50 students - equivalent to 10.1% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 126 students, or 25.6% 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.

North Side Primary Center Infractions by Multiracial Students Over 5 Years