Peoria Standard

Multiracial students, constituting 10.3% or 23 of Norwood Primary School's total student population of 223, accounted for 14 out of the 26 total suspensions (53.8%) in the 2021-22 school year, averaging roughly one suspension per two students, according to the latest student discipline report by the Illinois State Board of Education.

During the same period, Norwood Primary School's 170 white students, who make up 76.2% of the school population, received nine suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 19 white students, which is definitively lower than that of multiracial students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.

Of the 26 total suspensions at Norwood Primary School in the 2021-22 school year, five were in-school suspensions and 21 out-of-school suspensions.

According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, six student suspensions at Norwood Primary School were for violence-related offenses.

The most common infraction causing suspension, however, was tobacco offenses, tallying eight cases - 30.8% of the total infractions.

During the 2021-22 school year, Norwood Primary School reported 35 students - equivalent to 15.7% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 96 students, or 42.9% of the student population, fell into the chronically absent category, a broader measure that includes all absences, excused or not.

Multiracial students were notably overrepresented in these statistics, comprising 57.9% of all students who were chronically 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
Black	17	3	0.18
Multiracial	23	14	0.61
White	170	9	0.05