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Chicago: Fast Facts
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Chicago Public Schools |
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Facts and Figures (2003-04) |
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Total Student Enrollment
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434,419 |
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Student Demographics: |
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Native American |
0.2% |
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African-American |
50.3% |
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Asian/Pacific Islander |
3.2% |
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Latino |
37.2% |
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White |
9.1% |
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Percentage of students from low-income families (receive reduced-priced or free lunch) |
84.9%< |
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Number of Schools |
613 |
| Source: Chicago Public Schools, At a Glance, www.cps.k12.il.us/AtAGlance.html (last visited Feb. 9, 2005) |
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Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has clearly implemented a full-throttle zero tolerance approach that excludes thousands of students from the classroom each year.
- From 1994 to 2003, the annual number of elementary school suspensions more than doubled from 8,870 to 20,312. In the 2002–2003 school year, more than 29,700 children were suspended from CPS. Every day, on average, more than 266 suspensions are doled out by CPS during the school year.[i]
- In 2002–2003, CPS reported that 712 students were expelled;[ii] however, news accounts cite that the number of expulsions has mushroomed from 32 in 1995 to 3,000 in school year 2003–2004.[iii]
- In 2003, 8,539 youths were arrested in CPS.[iv]
·In Chicago, the schoolhouse-to-jailhouse track is often set in motion for children at an early age. Of the 2003 arrests, an astounding 830, or almost 10%, were arrests of children aged 12 and under.[v]
·In 2003, more than 40% of arrests were for simple assault—more than three times the number of any other category of offenses. A simple assault involves no injuries and no weapons and is often nothing more than a threat.
Chicago's zero tolerance policies and practices fall more harshly on Black students.
- In 2003, Black students constituted 50% of student enrollment but more than 77% of arrests in schools.
- Black students were 51% of enrollment in 2002–2003, they were 76% of suspensions and almost 78% of expulsions.
- Further analysis of the district's suspensions indicates astonishing disparities: between 1999 and 2003, Black students averaged 84% of all elementary school students suspended.[vi]
- More than half of the students suspended in 2003–2004 were African-American boys.[vii]
One of the more visible effects of the crackdown on student discipline in Chicago is the growing reliance on school police and security measures.
- CPS has a huge security budget; in 2003–2004, the district's security budget was $53 million.
- The school district employs 1,700 security staff, which is nearly three times as many as five years ago.[x]
- There are armed, uniformed Chicago police officers in every high school and in some in K-8 and middle schools. Every K-8 school also employs an off-duty Chicago police officer as the head of security.
- All schools are equipped with metal detectors, and, as of August 2003, 46 schools had X-ray machines to scan student backpacks and book bags, with another 36 schools slated to receive them.
- In 2003, 201 schools had video security systems, and 12 schools had extensive exterior digital surveillance cameras.[xiv]
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