Metro East Sun

Alton Community Unit School District 11 reported 2,006 suspensions and 16 expulsions just during the 2023-24 school year, according to the Illinois Report Card.

In total, there were 2,022 disciplinary actions recorded during the school year, representing a rate of approximately 36.2 incidents per 100 of the district’s enrolled students.

The expulsions were issued for 14 incidents involving violence that caused physical injury.

Among in-school suspensions where a reason was specified, the most common cause was incidents involving violence without physical injury, with 130 recorded cases. There were also 38 incidents involving tobacco. Additionally, 953 cases were classified under "other reason" or left unspecified.

There were 1,364 disciplinary incidents involving male students. Another 658 incidents involved female students.

Of all suspensions issued in the district, 1,424 involved elementary or middle school students, while 582 involved high school students.

Out-of-school suspensions most commonly were for incidents involving violence that caused physical injury, with 305 cases reported. Additionally, 326 cases were classified under the "other reason" category.

In terms of ethnicity, Black students, who made up 30.2% of the Alton Community Unit School District 11 student body, were suspended or expelled the most in the district, with 1,085 suspensions and 14 expulsions reported during the 2023-24 school year. They were followed by white students, who made up 51% of the student body, and received 468 suspensions and were expelled once.

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	-
Violence with injury	12	305	14
Violence without injury	130	134	-
Drug offenses	29	58	-
Firearm	-	-	-
Other dangerous weapons	1	11	-
Tobacco	38	7	-
Other reason	953	326	2
Total	1,163	843	16

Duration	In-School Suspension	Out-of-School Suspension
One day or less	237	24
1-2 days	735	256
2-3 days	161	125
3-4 days	28	199
4-10 days	2	149
More than 10 days	-	90