Chicago City Wire

White students, constituting 6.6% or 35 of James Ward Elementary School's total student population of 530, accounted for six out of the 13 total suspensions (46.2%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per six students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, James Ward Elementary School's 398 Asian students, who make up 75.1% of the school population, received one suspension. This translates to an average of one suspension per 398 Asian students, which is definitively lower than that of white students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 13 total suspensions at James Ward Elementary School in the 2021-22 school year, eight were in-school suspensions and five out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, nine student suspensions at James Ward Elementary School were for violence-related offenses.

The most common infraction causing suspension was violence offenses, tallying nine cases - 69.2% of the total infractions.

During the 2021-22 school year, James Ward Elementary School reported 55 students - equivalent to 10.4% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 62 students, or 11.7% of the student population, fell into the chronically absent category, a broader measure that includes all absences, excused or not.

White students were notably overrepresented in these statistics, comprising 32.3% of all students who were chronically truant or absent.

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	52	1	0.02
Black	44	5	0.11
Asian	398	1	0
White	35	6	0.17