HB4208eng 100TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HB4208 Engrossed LRB100 16263 AXK 31386 b

AN ACT concerning education.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The School Code is amended by changing Section 2-3.162 and by adding Section 2-3.173 as follows:

(105 ILCS 5/2-3.162)

Sec. 2-3.162. Student discipline report; school discipline improvement plan.

(a) 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, whether a student is an English learner, incident type, and discipline duration.

(b) The State Board of Education shall analyze the data under subsection (a) of this Section on an annual basis and determine the top 20% of school districts qualifying under any of for the following metrics:

(1) Total number of out-of-school suspensions divided by the total district enrollment by the last school day in September for the year in which the data was collected, multiplied by 100.

(2) Total number of out-of-school expulsions divided by the total district enrollment by the last school day in September for the year in which the data was collected, multiplied by 100.

(3) Racial disproportionality, defined as the overrepresentation of students of color or white students in comparison to the total number of students of color or white students on October 1st of the school year in which data are collected, with respect to the use of out-of-school suspensions and expulsions, which must be calculated using the same method as the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights uses.

The analysis must be based on data collected over 3 consecutive school years, beginning with the 2014-2015 school year.

(c) On or before October 31, 2018 and on or before October 31 of each subsequent year, the State Board of Education shall notify each school district Beginning with the 2017-2018 school year, the State Board of Education shall require each of the school districts that are identified in the top 20% of any of the metrics described in this subsection (b) of this Section for 3 consecutive school years that the school district must submit a plan in conformance with subsection (d) of this Section.

(d) School districts identified in the top 20% of any of the metrics described in subsection (b) of this Section for 3 consecutive school years must, in a manner prescribed by the State Board of Education, submit a plan to the State Board of Education that identifies to submit a plan identifying the strategies the school district will implement to reduce the use of exclusionary disciplinary practices or racial disproportionality or both, if applicable. School districts that no longer meet the criteria described in any of the metrics described in this subsection (b) for 3 consecutive years shall no longer be required to submit a plan.

This plan may be combined with any other improvement plans required under federal or State law.

The plan must be approved at a public school board meeting no later than 90 days after notification from the State Board of Education pursuant to subsection (c) of this Section and must be posted on the school district's Internet website. Within one calendar year after the school board's approval of the plan, the school district shall submit to the State Board of Education, in a manner prescribed by the State Board of Education, and post on the district's Internet website a progress report describing the implementation of the plan and the results achieved. Additional annual progress reports shall be required until a school district no longer meets the criteria in any of the metrics described in subsection (b) of this Section for 3 consecutive school years.

(e) The calculation of the top 20% of any of the metrics described in this subsection (b) of this Section shall exclude all school districts, State-authorized charter schools, and special charter districts that issued fewer than a total of 10 out-of-school suspensions or expulsions, whichever is applicable, during the school year. The calculation of the top 20% of the metric described in subdivision (3) of this subsection (b) of this Section shall exclude all school districts with an enrollment of fewer than 50 white students or fewer than 50 students of color.

The plan must be approved at a public school board meeting and posted on the school district's Internet website. Within one year after being identified, the school district shall submit to the State Board of Education and post on the district's Internet website a progress report describing the implementation of the plan and the results achieved.

(Source: P.A. 98-1102, eff. 8-26-14; 99-30, eff. 7-10-15; 99-78, eff. 7-20-15; revised 9-25-17.)

(105 ILCS 5/2-3.173 new)

Sec. 2-3.173. Safe Schools and Healthy Learning Environments Program.

(a) The General Assembly recognizes that (i) many K-12 students around the State are arrested in school and sent into the justice system, often for minor offenses that do not pose a serious threat to school safety; (ii) some schools across the State have become overly reliant on law enforcement personnel to handle routine school disciplinary matters; (iii) many student behaviors that result in arrest in some schools are addressed without involving the justice system in others; (iv) the overcriminalization of K-12 students has had significant negative consequences for students, families, and entire communities; (v) these dynamics, known as the "school-to-prison pipeline", have disproportionately affected students of color; (vi) these practices impose substantial economic costs on both localities and the State overall; and (vii) eliminating unnecessary school-based arrests and law enforcement presence in school while promoting the use of developmentally appropriate alternatives will protect school safety, improve school climate, raise academic achievement, and save taxpayer dollars.

(b) The State Board of Education, subject to appropriation, is authorized to award competitive grants on an annual basis under a Safe Schools and Healthy Learning Environments Program. The goal of this grant program is to promote school safety and healthy learning environments by reducing the reliance on law enforcement to address school disciplinary matters and implement alternative strategies that will better address the full range of students' intellectual, social, emotional, physical, psychological, and moral developmental needs. To receive a grant under this program, school districts must develop plans for implementing evidence-based and promising practices that are aligned with this goal, including, but not limited to, hiring restorative justice practitioners, school psychologists, social workers, and other mental and behavioral health specialists, providing drug and alcohol treatment services and wraparound services for youth, training for school staff on alternatives to law enforcement involvement for school-based offenses that include restorative justice approaches, conflict resolution techniques, and expanded use of school support personnel and community-based services, trauma-informed approaches to meeting students' developmental needs, and addressing the effects of toxic stress. For purposes of this subsection (b), "promising practices" means practices that present, based on preliminary information, potential for becoming evidence-based practices.

Grant funds shall not be used to increase the use of school-based law enforcement or security personnel. Nothing in this Section shall prohibit school districts from involving law enforcement personnel when necessary and allowed by law.

(c) The State Board of Education, subject to appropriation of the grant program, shall annually disseminate a request for applications to this program and funds shall be distributed annually. The criteria to be considered by the State Board of Education in awarding the funds shall be (i) the arrest rates in the target schools over the preceding 3 years, which shall be calculated as the number of arrests divided by the number of students; (ii) the ratio of school-based law enforcement personnel to students in the target schools over the preceding 3 years; and (iii) the degree to which the proposal articulates a strong, comprehensive approach for eliminating unnecessary school-based arrests and the over-reliance on law enforcement to address school disciplinary matters while building safer and healthier learning environments.

For criterion (i), applicant school districts shall be ranked from highest arrest rates to lowest, with higher arrest rates receiving priority. For criterion (ii), applicant school districts shall be ranked from the highest ratio of school-based law enforcement to students to the lowest ratio, with the higher ratios receiving priority. For criterion (iii), applicant school districts shall be ranked on the basis of the strength of their overall strategy, with all school districts that fail to articulate a sound approach being excluded from consideration. The State Board of Education shall determine a scoring system for each criterion based on the relative ranking of the applicant school districts. Applicant school districts' overall cumulative scores shall be based on the following weights: criterion (i): 40%; criterion (ii): 20%; and criterion (iii): 40%. If the appropriated funds are insufficient to provide funds to all selected grantees, the State Board of Education shall have discretion to choose the number of school districts that will receive funds as well as the amount of their grant awards, with the highest-scoring school districts receiving priority. If the appropriated funds exceed what is required to provide funding to all qualified applicants, the surplus shall be rolled over to be used for grants the following year.

(d) The State Board of Education, subject to appropriation to the grant program, shall produce an annual report on the results of the Safe Schools and Healthy Learning Environments Program in cooperation with the school districts participating in the program. The report shall include both quantitative and qualitative information on the progress being made in reducing unnecessary school-based arrests and the over-reliance on law enforcement to address school disciplinary matters, and the effects of the program on school safety and school climate. The report shall include the number of school-based arrests made within participating schools during the 3 school years prior to the grant compared to the number of school-based arrests made during the school year the grant was awarded. This report shall be posted on the State Board of Education's website by October 31 of each year, beginning in 2019.

(e) The State Board of Education may adopt rules necessary for the implementation of this program.

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect July 1, 2018.