Metro East Sun

Belle Valley School District 119 reported 133 suspensions and four expulsions just during the 2023-24 school year, according to the Illinois Report Card.

In total, there were 137 disciplinary actions recorded during the school year, representing a rate of approximately 14.3 incidents per 100 of the district’s enrolled students.

The expulsions were issued for two incidents involving drugs.

Among in-school suspension where a reason was specified, the only case was given for incident involving violence that caused physical injury. Additionally, 85 cases were classified under "other reason" or left unspecified.

There were 85 disciplinary incidents involving male students. Another 52 incidents involved female students.

All 133 suspensions issued in the district involved elementary or middle school students.

Out-of-school suspensions most commonly were for incidents involving violence that caused physical injury and violence without physical injury, with four cases reported. Additionally, 42 cases were classified under the "other reason" category.

In terms of ethnicity, Black students, who made up 60.9% of the Belle Valley School District 119 student body, were suspended or expelled the most in the district, with 103 suspensions and two expulsions reported during the 2023-24 school year. They were followed by multiracial students, who made up 12.9% of the student body, and received 17 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	-	-	-
Violence with injury	1	2	-
Violence without injury	-	2	-
Drug offenses	-	-	2
Firearm	-	-	-
Other dangerous weapons	-	1	-
Tobacco	-	-	-
Other reason	85	42	2
Total	86	47	4

Duration	In-School Suspension	Out-of-School Suspension
One day or less	2	-
1-2 days	58	11
2-3 days	20	17
3-4 days	6	12
4-10 days	-	5
More than 10 days	-	2