Peoria Standard

Hispanic students, constituting 2.1% or 17 of Hickory Grove Elementary School's total student population of 808, accounted for three out of the 14 total suspensions (21.4%) 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, Hickory Grove Elementary School's 383 white students, who make up 47.4% of the school population, received eight suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 48 white students, which is definitively lower than that of Hispanic students.

Black students at Hickory Grove Elementary School behaved worse than whites, but better than Hispanics, with two suspensions for 47 students in the 2021-22 school year - an average of roughly one suspension per 24 Black students.

In contrast, Asian students, who make up 42.3% of the student body at Hickory Grove Elementary School, had the lowest suspension ratio with an average of one suspension per 342 Asian students, totaling one suspension. This rate is definitively lower than that of Hispanic students, establishing them as the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 14 total suspensions at Hickory Grove Elementary School in the 2021-22 school year, 10 were in-school suspensions and four out-of-school suspensions.

In addition, 84 students, or 10.4% 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	17	3	0.18
Black	47	2	0.04
Asian	342	1	0
White	383	8	0.02