Metro East Sun

O'Fallon Township High School District 203 reported 1,230 suspensions and 22 expulsions just during the 2023-24 school year, according to the Illinois Report Card.

In total, there were 1,252 disciplinary actions recorded during the school year, representing a rate of approximately 49.9 incidents per 100 of the district’s enrolled students.

The expulsions were issued for four incidents involving violence that caused physical injury, an incident involving alcohol and tobacco, nine incidents involving drugs, an incident involving a firearm, and an incident involving a dangerous weapon other than a firearm.

Among in-school suspensions where a reason was specified, the most common cause was incidents involving tobacco, with 36 recorded cases. There were also two incidents involving violence without physical injury. Additionally, 724 cases were classified under "other reason" or left unspecified.

There were 880 disciplinary incidents involving male students. Another 372 incidents involved female students.

All 1,230 suspensions issued in the district involved high school students.

Out-of-school suspensions most commonly were for incidents involving violence without physical injury, with 72 cases reported. Additionally, 339 cases were classified under the "other reason" category.

In terms of ethnicity, Black students, who made up 21.7% of the O'Fallon Township High School District 203 student body, were suspended or expelled the most in the district, with 694 suspensions and 10 expulsions reported during the 2023-24 school year. They were followed by white students, who made up 58.7% of the student body, and received 360 suspensions and were expelled five 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	-	2	1
Violence with injury	-	12	4
Violence without injury	2	72	-
Drug offenses	1	32	9
Firearm	-	1	1
Other dangerous weapons	-	2	1
Tobacco	36	7	-
Other reason	724	339	6
Total	763	467	22

Duration	In-School Suspension	Out-of-School Suspension
One day or less	-	-
1-2 days	763	275
2-3 days	-	48
3-4 days	-	42
4-10 days	-	49
More than 10 days	-	53