Lake County Gazette

Woodland Community Consolidated School District 50 reported 424 suspensions just during the 2023-24 school year, according to the Illinois Report Card.

In total, there were 424 disciplinary actions recorded during the school year, representing a rate of approximately 9.4 incidents per 100 of the district’s enrolled students.

Among in-school suspensions where a reason was specified, the most common cause was incidents involving violence that caused physical injury, with 40 recorded cases. There were also nine incidents involving tobacco. Additionally, 252 cases were classified under "other reason" or left unspecified.

There were 267 disciplinary incidents involving male students. Another 47 incidents involved female students.

All 424 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, with 51 cases reported. Additionally, 50 cases were classified under the "other reason" category.

In terms of ethnicity, Hispanic students, who made up 39.7% of the Woodland Community Consolidated School District 50 student body, were suspended the most in the district, with 164 suspensions reported during the 2023-24 school year. They were followed by Black students, who made up 9.2% of the student body, and received 117 suspensions.

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
Alcohol	-	-
Violence with injury	40	51
Violence without injury	-	-
Drug offenses	-	18
Firearm	2	-
Other dangerous weapons	-	-
Tobacco	9	2
Other reason	252	50
Total	303	121

Duration	In-School Suspension	Out-of-School Suspension
One day or less	10	4
1-2 days	207	22
2-3 days	58	26
3-4 days	28	32
4-10 days	-	28
More than 10 days	-	9