Jason Helfer Chief Education Officer - Instruction | Twitter
Jason Helfer Chief Education Officer - Instruction | Twitter
In total, there were 995 disciplinary actions recorded during the school year, representing a rate of approximately 42.9 incidents per 100 of the district’s enrolled students.
The expulsions were issued for an incident involving violence without physical injury and 15 incidents involving drugs.
Among in-school suspensions where a reason was specified, the most common cause was incidents involving violence without physical injury, with 34 recorded cases. There were also 21 incidents involving tobacco. Additionally, 599 cases were classified under "other reason" or left unspecified.
There were 732 disciplinary incidents involving male students. Another 263 incidents involved female students.
Of all suspensions issued in the district, 409 involved elementary or middle school students, while 569 involved high school students.
Out-of-school suspensions most commonly were for incidents involving violence without physical injury, with 81 cases reported. Additionally, 165 cases were classified under the "other reason" category.
In terms of ethnicity, white students, who made up 81.1% of the Herrin Community Unit School District 4 student body, were suspended or expelled the most in the district, with 707 suspensions and 10 expulsions reported during the 2023-24 school year. They were followed by Black students, who made up 5% of the student body, and received 120 suspensions and were expelled four times.
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.
| Type of Incident | In-School Suspension | Out-of-School Suspension | Expelled |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alcohol | - | 1 | - |
| Violence with injury | 3 | 30 | - |
| Violence without injury | 34 | 81 | 1 |
| Drug offenses | 1 | 21 | 15 |
| Firearm | 1 | - | - |
| Other dangerous weapons | 3 | 6 | - |
| Tobacco | 21 | 12 | - |
| Other reason | 599 | 165 | 1 |
| Total | 662 | 316 | 17 |
| Duration | In-School Suspension | Out-of-School Suspension |
|---|---|---|
| One day or less | 22 | - |
| 1-2 days | 558 | 25 |
| 2-3 days | 40 | 88 |
| 3-4 days | 39 | 137 |
| 4-10 days | 3 | 39 |
| More than 10 days | - | 27 |
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