District 204 officials hopeful last year's spike in suspensions was an anomaly

Indian Prairie Unit District 204 officials say they're concerned about a spike in disciplinary suspensions last school year. But they're also confident the increase was an anomaly caused by the break from in-person learning during the pandemic.

District administrators presented data to the school board at Monday's meeting that showed 1.7% of students received an out-of-school suspension during the 2021-22 school year.

That mark is above the district goal of 1% or lower. There were 445 suspensions last school year. In the 2018-19 school year, before the pandemic, there were 330.

District 204 is the state's fourth-largest school district. Its schools serve 26,000 students in Aurora, Bolingbrook, Naperville and Plainfield.

"It is our belief that the rise, since it's for one year, does not represent a trend and is only an aberration," Superintendent Adrian Talley said. "The trend for our district has been declining numbers, and that one year does not reflect the direction in which we are going with discipline."

Only 0.2% of elementary school students received suspensions in 2021-22, while 2.4% of middle schoolers and 3.1% of high school students were suspended. The total of 445 suspensions is the most in the district since the 2014-15 school year.

The district's long-term trend for suspension numbers has steadily dropped since reaching a peak of 824 in the 2010-11 school year.

District officials said they expect this year's suspension numbers to decrease as students continue adjusting to a return to full-time in-person learning. Regardless, the district is implementing a series of interventions - from parent re-entry meetings to referrals to the 360 Youth Services facility.

The district is also starting a Pilot Reset Program at the Gail McKinzie High School in Naperville to help suspended students transition back to their home schools.

The overall focus, though, is to maintain a "keep kids in class" philosophy and avoid suspensions as much as possible.

"There are definitely some concerns there," board member Mark Rising said. "I'm not going to overreact because I want to see what the discipline numbers come in at after this year. But as a board, as a parent, none of us should be OK with this."