Coal City High School students suspended or expelled 132 times just in 2023-24 school year

Coal City High School reported 131 suspensions and an expulsion just during the 2023-24 school year, according to the Illinois Report Card.

In total, there were 133 disciplinary actions recorded during the school year, of which 132 were suspensions or expulsions, representing a rate of approximately 20.8 incidents per 100 of the school's enrolled students. There was an additional case of students being removed to alternative settings rather than being suspended or expelled.

The expulsion was issued for an incident involving violence without physical injury.

The school reported that most in-school suspensions were given for incidents involving tobacco, with 56 recorded cases. There were also 19 incidents involving drugs. Additionally, 33 cases were classified under "other reason" or left unspecified.

There were 88 disciplinary incidents involving male students. Another 44 incidents involved female students.

Of all suspensions issued in the school, zero involved elementary or middle school students, while 23 involved high school students.

Out-of-school suspensions most commonly were for incidents involving tobacco, violence that caused physical injury, and violence without physical injury, with 12 cases reported. Additionally, eight cases were classified under the "other reason" category.

In terms of ethnicity, white students, which made up 88.5% of the Coal City High School student body, were suspended the most in the school, with 110 suspensions reported during the 2023-24 school year. They were followed by Hispanic students, who made up 8.5% of the student body, and received 13 suspensions and were expelled once.

Coal City High School is located in the Coal City Community Unit School District 1, and has a main office in Coal City.

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.