* From a state law passed in 2014…

On or before October 31, 2015 and on or before October 31 of each subsequent year, the State Board of Education, through the State Superintendent of Education, shall prepare a report on student discipline in all school districts in this State, including State-authorized charter schools. This report shall include data from all public schools within school districts, including district-authorized charter schools. This report must be posted on the Internet website of the State Board of Education. The report shall include data on the issuance of out-of-school suspensions, expulsions, and removals to alternative settings in lieu of another disciplinary action, disaggregated by race and ethnicity, gender, age, grade level, limited English proficiency, incident type, and discipline duration. [Emphasis added.]

* Chicago Reporter…

Last summer, several women gathered at Delia Barajas’ home. As part of the community group Ixchel, they tackle education issues like school discipline in the mostly Hispanic communities of Cicero and Berwyn.

But as the women searched the Illinois State Board of Education’s website for data about how students in their area had been disciplined, they hit a wall. They found the race and ethnicity of students who’d been disciplined in their local districts had been redacted. […]

State officials say they have to redact race and ethnicity data to comply with federal and state requirements about protecting student privacy. They’ve decided that to do that, they won’t reveal any student groups that are smaller than 10 — a common practice in government reports. But Illinois officials say they also have to remove data on student groups much larger than 10 to protect the identity of students in smaller groups. As a result, few school districts have any race or ethnicity data.

Here’s how that looks in practice: Say a school district gave out 309 suspensions and 100 went to black children, 100 went to Hispanic children, 100 went to white children and nine went to multiracial children. State officials have redacted all of the race and ethnicity data in their reports to protect the nine multiracial students. They say a “reasonable person” could look at the total, do the math and identify individual students.

The state refused to supply the data to the Chicago Reporter, but Loyola University Chicago clinical law professor Miranda Johnson “managed to pry loose some of the state’s discipline data for black, white and Hispanic students,” according to the article.

This is what they found…

* Companion article from the Chicago Reporter…

Four years ago, Illinois passed the first in a series of discipline reforms meant to reduce student suspensions and expulsions from public schools.

The law tasks state officials with two responsibilities: Make school discipline data available to the public, and require districts with the consistently highest suspension and expulsion rates to improve.

At the time, there was national momentum to address discipline disparities, especially for black students, who are suspended and expelled from school far more often than their white classmates. In 2014, the Obama administration issued guidance to reduce discipline that removes students from class and interrupts their learning. Advocates and lawmakers knew Illinois needed to make drastic changes after a 2012 report by The Civil Rights Project at UCLA found the state’s suspension rate for black students was the highest in the nation.

But the 2014 law hasn’t had the outcomes legislators intended. The Illinois State Board of Education redacts the race and ethnicity of nearly all students who’ve been suspended or expelled, so parents and school communities can’t see what’s happening in their local districts. On top of that, the state board hasn’t required districts with the consistently highest suspension and expulsion rates to make any changes. [Emphasis added.]

Sheesh.

* Sen. Kimberly Lightford has a bill sitting on the governor’s desk which would clarify the law for the state board…

With respect to school discipline improvement plans, makes changes to how the State Board of Education determines the top 20% of school districts, when notification is given that a plan must be submitted, which school districts are required to submit a plan, the timeframe for school board approval of a plan and submission of that plan to the State Board, and when additional annual progress reports are required