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During their monthly meeting on Wednesday, [members of the Illinois State Board of Education] approved a list of agenda items that they will push in Springfield once lawmakers are back at the Capitol for the spring session, which is expected to start in late January. Board officials will still need to draft language for bills and find a lawmaker to carry their bills during the session.
While board members approved most of the agenda without much discussion, there was spirited debate around ticketing kids at school and student discipline. For student ticketing, the state board says it will work on a measure to close loopholes in state law to prevent schools from issuing fines or referring students to local police for disciplinary issues. […]
For student discipline, the state wants to outlaw expulsions for students in kindergarten through second grade and require superintendents to only issue suspensions for those students, while making changes to disciplinary practices for students in third through fifth grades. […]
A spokesperson for the state board said that the proposed measure would not ban or stop law enforcement from stepping in if a student breaks the law.
* From ISBE’s legislative agenda…
Licensure
This measure is a continuation of the agency’s efforts to decrease the teacher vacancy rate and strengthen the teacher pipeline in Illinois. It would create a paraprofessional pathway program to provide an expedited pathway for individuals to earn their license in a specific content area; streamline educator licensure requirements for individuals who seek to work as school support personnel and already hold an active and current professional license, strengthen procedures for out-of-state educators by ensuring they pass the content test prior to obtaining full licensure, remove coursework requirements for educators trained in other states or countries to instead require that the topics be covered in the exam individuals seeking licensure must pass, and omit references to incorrect preparation standards for out-of-state educators. This measure
aligns to Goal 3 of the Strategic Plan. […]Educator Misconduct
This measure would increase transparency and better equip districts in instances of educator misconduct. This proposal allows the state superintendent to release information of a pending investigation to a licensee’s current employing school district. This measure aligns to Goal 2 of the Strategic Plan.
* Related…
* Word In Black | What Illinois’ Ticket Crackdown Means for Black Students: School-based ticketing is a growing concern nationwide, and its data has consistently shown the alarming impacts of such policies. While it’s unknown exactly how many schools or districts use the practice, it’s a particularly acute problem in Illinois. According to the Illinois Department of Education, Black students make up just 17% of the state’s public school population but account for 42% of ticketed incidents. In the 2021-22 school year, Illinois’s Black and Hispanic students received about 68% of the tickets issued at school, even though they make up about 33% of district enrollment.
* Chalkbeat | Chicago to change how it flags disruptive behaviors for its youngest students: Chicago Public Schools did away with suspensions in preschool through second grade in 2014 — with one exception. A district official who oversees networks of schools can sign off on a one-day suspension in situations when school leaders fear a student presents a danger to peers and staff. In the school year before the change took effect, schools suspended students in those grades about 2,240 times, including 1,830 out-of-school suspensions. That was out of more than 5,000 times that students were flagged for misconduct under the student code of conduct that year.
* USA Today | Young children misbehave. Some are kicked out of school for acting their age: An analysis by The Hechinger Report of school discipline data from 20 states found widespread use of suspensions for students of all ages for ill-defined, subjective categories of misbehavior, such as disorderly conduct, defiance and insubordination. From 2017 to 2022, state reports cited these categories as a reason for suspension or expulsion more than 2.8 million times.
* Education Week | What Happened When a State Banned Suspensions for Young Students: A statewide ban on suspensions for some of the youngest learners in Maryland successfully reduced the use of the practice—but didn’t address how exclusionary discipline affects students of color or students with disabilities, researchers concluded in a recent study.
posted by Isabel Miller
Thursday, Dec 19, 24 @ 9:17 am
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==there was spirited debate around ticketing kids at school==
Well, there shouldn’t have been, and I hope legislation doesn’t capitulate to it
Comment by Stephanie Kollmann Thursday, Dec 19, 24 @ 9:24 am
Expel those trouble making kindergartners… goodness don’t know not was a big issue but must be if they are debating it. I would hope a school would keep working at it rather than expel.
Comment by 44 Thursday, Dec 19, 24 @ 9:25 am
what did they do in the old days? just go back to that. stand in the hallway as a punhishment, get suspended, kid gets kicked out of Catholic school and….oh the horror…has to go to a Public school. I do think, however, that some kids are more disruptive than in our past when we were actually scared of the teacher. fewer parents taking care of kids.
Comment by Amalia Thursday, Dec 19, 24 @ 9:48 am
-Amalia- Do you have young children? My guess is no.
To address your Catholic School comment:
Parents of children with learning disabilities or emotional dysregulation walk a razor’s edge. On one side, they seek the individualized attention afforded by lower student-teacher ratios in private or religious schools to prevent their children from being overwhelmed. On the other side, they wrestle with the greater resources available in public schools, despite the challenge of larger class sizes that dilute personalized attention.
Your comment is not only dismissive but profoundly insensitive to the immense sacrifices and tireless advocacy these parents undertake—often falling short, not for lack of effort, but due to systemic barriers in obtaining the necessary special resources.
The children you see in Kindergarten and younger are growing up in the aftermath of COVID—a time defined by unprecedented stress, disruption, and challenges. These are the formative years of children shaped by crisis, and yet, their parents are doing everything they can to make the impossible work.
Respectfully,
A parent taking care of their kid.
Comment by Justaquestion Thursday, Dec 19, 24 @ 10:13 am
The Word In Black report is informative from a structuralist perspective. Few will say they openly discriminate, obviously. And indeed, I as a sociologist believe few actually do actively discriminate at the individual level. So where do these numbers come from? The most likely sources of the significantly higher probabilities for Black and Latino children receiving 68% of tickets are structural in nature.
Residential segregation by family income creates differences in household dynamics and properties. The average family income of White Anglos is twice that of African American families, and 1.7 times that of Latino families. By concentrating people BY family Income into neighborhoods and census tracts, outsiders view poverty as racialized and conclude poverty is race-based (a truism). Poor kids (disproportionately of color) are theeeby stereotyped as different from middle class kids (which is a truism). In that context, when what works for middle class kids doesn’t work for poorer kids, harsher discipline is applied to children of color overall.
Blaming parents (who are on average much poorer) then becomes a surrogate for blaming culture, allowing laypeople to believe differential treatment and subsequent outcome differences are justified on the basis of culture (when ostensibly addressing class based differences). In the end, the fact that minority workers are paid less on average than White Anglo employees are paid, causes differential treatment in schooling practices that produce racialized differences in punishment. And in the long run, these differences in schooling practices (by class) reproduce themselves, and differential access to quality jobs.
Comment by H-W Thursday, Dec 19, 24 @ 10:16 am
Schools have an extremely tough job. Some instances of “misbehaving” can be very violent and result in injury to others. Years ago one of my daughters was attacked by another (male) student in the classroom. The teacher responded properly and the attacker was removed from the classroom. That kind of thing cannot be tolerated, though I’m not sure what the answer is.
Comment by Siualum Thursday, Dec 19, 24 @ 10:46 am
Justaquestion, you sound like a good parent. that’s great. hoping there’s more of you. unfortunately there are students who do not fit in the categories you write about. but perhaps you think that juveniles should not be in juvenile court for actions against victims. I disagree. and please do not shame people for their status of having children or not. property owning status or family makeup status are not categories for citizen participation or voting.
Comment by Amalia Thursday, Dec 19, 24 @ 10:50 am
-Amalia-
Not my intention to shame. My sincerest apologies if I did so. I think we can all do better at not being so general when commenting about a broad group of people. It’s divisive and unnecessary. Parenting is complex, school systems are complex. Some parents are doing the best they can.
Comment by Justaquestion Thursday, Dec 19, 24 @ 11:20 am
Ticketing should never have been an option for school discipline. And except in certain circumstances a school shouldn’t be turning over a kid to the police so that the police can take care of discipline. If a school can’t handle discipline without the police then I question the administration in that school district. Police and ticketing have no business as part of the disciplinary process and except in certain circumstances (i.e. violence) then ban this practice.
Comment by Demoralized Thursday, Dec 19, 24 @ 11:22 am
=== Educator Misconduct ===
What does CTU say about this proposal?
Comment by Just Me 2 Thursday, Dec 19, 24 @ 11:28 am
Justaquestion, “fewer parents taking care of kids. was my comment about parents. as in there are fewer of your type parenting nicely. you ran with it. everyone in the equation needs to do better.
Comment by Amalia Thursday, Dec 19, 24 @ 11:43 am
-Amalia-
Agreed. Which is why I sincerely apologized for my earlier comment about your vague statement on parenting and how they are doing. My apology wasn’t meant to come off as flippant —it was genuine.
I simply wanted to point out that it’s easy to offer commentary on what should be done, but for those in the midst of it, your “God forbid” comment could be taken negatively.
That said, I believe this back-and-forth isn’t productive, so I’ll bow out of the conversation here. However, if we ever meet in person, I’d love to sit down over a cup of coffee and share my personal story. It might help explain why I felt compelled to respond the way I did.
Wishing you Happy Holidays!
Comment by Justaquestion Thursday, Dec 19, 24 @ 11:57 am
There used to be something in the Juvenile Code called MRAI a minor requiring authoritative interpretation basically putting child under the authority of the Juvenile court system could be filed by almost anyone including a parent. Idea was to give child some structure and help. I doubt it is used anymore. And the he idea of expelling a second grader or younger is reprehensible. Usually I would see them end up with a DCFS case. But this was years ago and in DuPage with a much smaller population
Comment by DuPage Saint Thursday, Dec 19, 24 @ 12:20 pm
==the police can take care of discipline.==
Police don’t “take care of discipline”.
It doesn’t work that way.
Comment by Occasionally Moderated Thursday, Dec 19, 24 @ 12:38 pm
“… then I question the administration in that school district.”
Never seen a group so afraid of being sued as school board members & the administration. That is a large part of why we have what we have.
Comment by Anyone Remember Thursday, Dec 19, 24 @ 12:47 pm
MRAI. I is for intervention not interpretation. Sorry
Comment by DuPage Saint Thursday, Dec 19, 24 @ 12:57 pm