Manhattan School District 114 students suspended 40 times in 2023-24 school year

Manhattan School District 114 reported 40 suspensions during the 2023-24 school year, according to the Illinois Report Card.

In total, there were 40 disciplinary actions recorded during the school year, representing a rate of approximately 2.1 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 without physical injury, with four recorded cases. There was also one incident involving drugs. Additionally, 18 cases were classified under "other reason" or left unspecified.

There were 38 disciplinary incidents involving male students. Another two incidents involved female students.

All 40 suspensions issued in the district involved elementary or middle school students.

Out-of-school suspensions most commonly were for incidents involving violence without physical injury, with six cases reported. Additionally, 10 cases were classified under the "other reason" category.

In terms of ethnicity, white students, who made up 83.5% of the Manhattan School District 114 student body, were suspended the most in the district, with 30 suspensions reported during the 2023-24 school year. They were followed by Hispanic students, who made up 11.1% of the student body, and received eight suspensions.

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.