North Cook News

Multiracial students, constituting 2.8% or 14 of Kimball Hill Elementary School's total student population of 500, accounted for five out of the 12 total suspensions (41.7%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per three students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Kimball Hill Elementary School's 235 Hispanic students, who make up 47% of the school population, received five suspensions. This translates to an average of one suspension per 47 Hispanic students, which is definitively lower than that of multiracial students.

In contrast, white students, who make up 42% of the student body at Kimball Hill Elementary School, had the lowest suspension ratio with an average of one suspension per 105 white students, totaling two suspensions. This rate is definitively lower than that of multiracial students, establishing them as the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 12 total suspensions at Kimball Hill Elementary School in the 2021-22 school year, five were in-school suspensions and seven out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, 10 student suspensions at Kimball Hill Elementary School were for violence-related offenses.

The most common infraction causing suspension was violence offenses, tallying 10 cases - 83.3% of the total infractions.

During the 2021-22 school year, Kimball Hill Elementary School reported 40 students - equivalent to 8% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 104 students, or 20.7% of the student population, fell into the chronically absent category, a broader measure that includes all absences, excused or not.

In a broader context, data from the ProPublica database indicates that Black students are suspended at a rate 4.6 times higher than white students in Illinois—surpassing the already high national average rate of 3.9 times.

However, districts’ officials deny a direct link between these statistics and race. Lisa Small, the Superintendent of District 211, argues that these numbers oversimplify the situation. “Decisions are highly individualized and based on the specific behavior and are not well-suited to a simple numerical analysis,” she wrote in a statement. “They are not a statistic to us, but a developing young adult.”

Illinois ranks 12th in the nation for the highest rate of suspensions among Black students relative to their white peers.

Race	Number of Students	Total Infractions	Infractions Per Student
Hispanic	235	5	0.02
Multiracial	14	5	0.36
White	210	2	0.01