Quincy Reporter

School administrators within Adams County reportedly handed out 4,230 suspensions and 10 expulsions solely during the 2023-24 school year, according to the Illinois Report Card.

In total, there were 4,254 disciplinary actions recorded during the school year, of which 4,240 were suspensions or expulsions, representing an average of 0.5 actions per student in the county. There were an additional 14 cases of students being removed to alternative settings rather than being suspended or expelled.

The expulsions were issued for an incident involving violence that caused physical injury, two incidents involving violence without physical injury, three incidents involving drugs, and an incident involving a firearm.

Among the 19 schools in the county, Quincy Junior High School reported the highest number of disciplinary actions at the time, with a total of 1,984—or 46.6% of all incidents countywide.

The county reported that most in-school suspensions where a reason was specified were given for incidents involving violence without physical injury, with 232 recorded cases. There were also 21 incidents involving violence that caused physical injury. Additionally, 2,137 cases were classified under "other reason" or left unspecified.

There were 3,203 disciplinary incidents involving male students. Another 1,037 incidents involved female students.

Of all suspensions issued in the Adams County schools, 3,172 involved elementary or middle school students, while 1,058 involved high school students.

Out-of-school suspensions most commonly were for incidents involving violence without physical injury, with 404 cases reported. Additionally, 1,312 cases were classified under the "other reason" category.

In terms of ethnicity, white students, who made up 80.6% of the student body in Adams County schools, were suspended or expelled the most in the county, with 2,592 suspensions and six expulsions reported during the 2023-24 school year (61.3% of all disciplinary actions). They were followed by multiracial students, who made up 9.3% of the student body, and received 868 suspensions and were expelled three times (20.5%).

Some schools or districts may not publish complete disciplinary data due to privacy protections or reporting limitations, which could affect the totals.

Illinois allocated $8.6 billion to K-12 education in its 2025 budget—a $350 million increase over FY 2024, meeting the minimum required under the state’s school 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	Expelled
Alcohol	3	2	-
Violence with injury	21	32	1
Violence without injury	232	404	2
Drug offenses	19	43	3
Firearm	-	8	1
Other dangerous weapons	-	-	-
Tobacco	1	16	-
Other reason	2,137	1,312	3
Total	2,413	1,817	10

Duration	In-School Suspension	Out-of-School Suspension
One day or less	1,323	322
1-2 days	909	670
2-3 days	135	406
3-4 days	41	262
4-10 days	5	121
More than 10 days	-	36