SR0232 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0232 LRB102 18185 MST 25764 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, All students, educators, and families in Illinois have been deeply affected by COVID-19 in ways that will be felt for years to come; and

WHEREAS, The pandemic has laid bare systemic inequities in American society and has disproportionately impacted Black and Latinx students, students from low-income households, English Learners, and students with special needs; and

WHEREAS, Even prior to COVID-19, Illinois students faced significant unmet academic and social-emotional needs; and

WHEREAS, Since March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced districts to disrupt traditional in-person learning and educator professional development, and schools have been implementing variations of in-person, hybrid, and remote learning models; and

WHEREAS, Research suggests that the disrupted schooling over the past year, left unaddressed, will impact students' academic and social-emotional learning and development and will disproportionally impact historically underserved students' educational and lifelong outcomes; and

WHEREAS, The path to recovery for Illinois students requires a commitment to address their academic, emotional, and mental health needs and requires adults in the State of Illinois to provide our children with stronger, more systemic supports and interventions; and

WHEREAS, Teachers and administrators will need additional time to plan and adapt practice to best support student needs; and

WHEREAS, Both research and practice indicate that adding time to the school day and/or year can have a meaningful positive impact on student outcomes; and

WHEREAS, To be most effective, this additional time needs to be of both a sufficient quantity and quality, including engaging instructional and enrichment time for students and planning and collaboration time for educators; and

WHEREAS, There are meaningful equity considerations that schools and districts must consider in how they elect to add additional time to the school day and/or school year so that no student or group of students is excluded or faces opportunity gaps; and

WHEREAS, Illinois school districts have received significant federal stimulus dollars to address both the COVID-19 related immediate and recovery needs of students, and extended time is an allowable use for these funds; and

WHEREAS, Absent additional time, in order to provide the needed academic and social-emotional supports, schools may be forced to eliminate or decrease time and support for enrichment opportunities or focus on a subset of content instead of the breadth and depth of knowledge the State and Illinois institutions of higher education have deemed necessary for post-secondary success; and

WHEREAS, National and local education and civil rights leaders, as well as state education leaders, have advocated for additional time as a critical strategy to address learning disruption; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we urge Illinois school districts to add additional time to the school day and/or school year, beginning in the School Year 2021-22 and for the next three years, to help all students address the unprecedented need brought by the COVID-19 learning disruption; and be it further

RESOLVED, That this additional time should be added based on research-based best practices, including ensuring there are sufficient additional minutes added to the calendar with a focus on quality instructional, social-emotional, and enrichment programming; and be it further

RESOLVED, That additional consideration should be given to the need for additional time for educators to plan and prepare; and be it further

RESOLVED, That districts should prioritize equity considerations in the planning and implementation of this additional time, including how this time is (1) prioritized for those schools and communities that serve predominantly historically underserved student populations, (2) supported by qualified educators and staff, (3) accessible by sufficient transportation services and not at the exclusion of participating in extracurricular activities like sports, internships and clubs, (4) inclusive of programming that takes into consideration the language needs and diverse learner needs of the community's students, (5) not prohibitive for students based on fees, and (6) executed in partnership with caregivers, students, and school staff.