Carbondale Reporter

School administrators within Williamson County reportedly handed out 1,400 suspensions and 17 expulsions solely during the 2023-24 school year, according to the Illinois Report Card.

In total, there were 1,419 disciplinary actions recorded during the school year, of which 1,417 were suspensions or expulsions, representing an average of 0.1 actions per student in the county. There were an additional two cases of students being removed to alternative settings rather than being suspended or expelled.

The expulsions were issued for an incident involving violence without physical injury and 15 incidents involving drugs.

Among the 21 schools in the county, Herrin High School reported the highest number of disciplinary actions at the time, with a total of 586—or 41.3% of all incidents countywide.

The county reported that most in-school suspensions where a reason was specified were given for incidents involving violence without physical injury, with 77 recorded cases. There were also 25 incidents involving tobacco. Additionally, 747 cases were classified under "other reason" or left unspecified.

There were 1,052 disciplinary incidents involving male students. Another 365 incidents involved female students.

Of all suspensions issued in the Williamson County schools, 661 involved elementary or middle school students, while 739 involved high school students.

Out-of-school suspensions most commonly were for incidents involving violence without physical injury, with 139 cases reported. Additionally, 241 cases were classified under the "other reason" category.

In terms of ethnicity, white students, who made up 80.8% of the student body in Williamson County schools, were suspended or expelled the most in the county, with 962 suspensions and 10 expulsions reported during the 2023-24 school year (68.6% of all disciplinary actions). They were followed by Black students, who made up 5.7% of the student body, and received 160 suspensions and were expelled four times (11.6%).

Some schools or districts may not publish complete disciplinary data due to privacy protections or reporting limitations, which could affect the totals.

Illinois allocated $8.6 billion to K-12 education in its 2025 budget—a $350 million increase over FY 2024, meeting the minimum required under the state’s school 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	9	57	-
Violence without injury	77	139	1
Drug offenses	1	77	15
Firearm	1	1	-
Other dangerous weapons	4	7	-
Tobacco	25	13	-
Other reason	747	241	1
Total	864	536	17

Duration	In-School Suspension	Out-of-School Suspension
One day or less	38	5
1-2 days	700	97
2-3 days	69	134
3-4 days	53	214
4-10 days	4	49
More than 10 days	-	37