* ProPublica in 2022…

Administrators at the Garrison School call the police to report student misbehavior every other school day, on average. And because staff members regularly press charges against the children — some as young as 9 — officers have arrested students more than 100 times in the last five school years, an investigation by the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica found. That is an astounding number given that Garrison, the only school that is part of the Four Rivers Special Education District, has fewer than 65 students in most years.

No other school district — not just in Illinois, but in the entire country — had a higher student arrest rate than Four Rivers the last time data was collected nationwide. That school year, 2017-18, more than half of all Garrison students were arrested.

Officers typically handcuff students and take them to the police station, where they are fingerprinted, photographed and placed in a holding room. For at least a decade, the local newspaper has included the arrests in its daily police blotter for all to see.

The students enrolled each year at Garrison have severe emotional or behavioral disabilities that kept them from succeeding at previous schools. Some also have been diagnosed with autism, ADHD or other disorders. Many have experienced horrifying trauma, including sexual abuse, the death of parents and incarceration of family members, according to interviews with families and school employees.

* Today from ProPublica…

An Illinois school district that had the nation’s highest student arrest rate has agreed to change its disciplinary practices and provide help to those who missed class time while being punished.

The agreement with the U.S. Department of Education will end a federal civil rights investigation into the Four Rivers Special Education District that was launched following a 2022 ProPublica and Chicago Tribune investigation that found the district turned to police with stunning frequency to discipline students with disabilities.

Under the deal, students who were referred to police or sent to a “crisis room” multiple times during the past three academic years could be eligible for services including tutoring, counseling or remedial education.

Four Rivers operates one public school: the Garrison School, in west-central Illinois, for students in an eight-county area of the state who have severe emotional and behavioral disabilities; some also have autism or ADHD. […]

In the 2021-22 school year, investigators found that students were sent to police 96 times — more than the total number of students enrolled that year — for reasons including “noncompliance,” “disruption,” “inappropriate language” and violating a phone policy. Students also “spent extensive time out of the classroom” even when police weren’t involved; one student was sent to a “crisis room” 143 times in one school year and spent four hours and 20 minutes there one day.

Under the agreement, Garrison employees should no longer call police for behaviors that a specialized school like Garrison “should be fully equipped to manage,” Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine E. Lhamon said in a written statement.

* From the agreement…

Student Remedies

By December 20, 2024, the District will notice and properly convene an Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting for each student with disabilities who was subjected to law enforcement contact or were sent to the crisis/regulation room multiple times and missed instructional time in the 2021-2022 through 2023-2024 school years. At each meeting, the District will:

- a. Invite the student’s parents/guardians to share any concerns with the District’s use of law enforcement or the crisis/regulation room.

- b. Through the IEP team, revise and/or more clearly define any provisions concerning the use of law enforcement or the crisis/regulation room in the student’s IEP as appropriate to meet the individualized needs of the student;

- c. Determine whether its use of law enforcement or the crisis/regulation room for the student resulted in a denial of a free appropriate public education (FAPE), taking into account the extent of missed instruction and/or related services during law enforcement contacts or a crisis/regulation room visits and any instances in which the student was sent home early or required to stay home after a law enforcement contact or the crisis/regulation room visit, and if so, what compensatory education and/or remedial services are necessary to provide the student a FAPE.

In the event the team determines that compensatory and/or remedial services are necessary, the team will develop a written plan for providing the student with any compensatory education and/or other remedial services deemed necessary, include the plan in the student’s IEP, commence promptly to provide such services, and complete the delivery of such services within a timeframe identified by the team that will not exceed six (6) months from the date of the IEP meeting.