In 2015, the Caruthersville 18 district issued 353 suspensions to students in kindergarten through third grade.

Black students make up 51.7 percent of its K-3 population. White students make up 48.3 percent.

Those suspensions went to both black and white students.

The Caruthersville 18 district is one of at least 79 in Missouri that recorded different types of suspensions: in-and out-of-school.

Here’s the breakdown of the district's suspensions from last year:

It gave 258 — or 83.0 percent — of its in-school suspensions to black students. White students received 47 — or 15.1 percent of these suspensions.

That works out to a rate of more than one in-school suspension for every black student enrolled and about one in-school suspension for every four white students.

But the picture looks quite different for out-of-school suspensions.

In the Caruthersville 18 district, only black children got out-of-school suspensions. They received 42 out-of-school suspensions last year.

That works out to a rate of about one out-of-school suspension for every four black students.

Crave even more context?

In Missouri, during the 2014-15 school year, students in kindergarten through third grade were suspended 21,463 times.

Black students make up about 17 percent of students in those grades. If they were given suspensions at a rate equal to their enrollment, they'd have received 3,574. Instead, they got 11,079 — more than half of all suspensions.

Still want to learn more? Look up another district or listen to the podcast.