April 28, 2022
Dear Superintendents, Principals, and Stakeholders:
If you did not grow up poor or have never lived paycheck-to-paycheck, it can be difficult to understand the hardship a $250 fine can place on a family. But as educators and the leaders of public institutions that serve families from diverse circumstances, we have a responsibility to put ourselves in the shoes of the people we impact as we make policy. Two-hundred and fifty dollars buys groceries for the week. It’s gas for a month to get mom and dad to and from work. It’s the heating and electric bill. It’s the credit card payment. For the more than 50 percent of our students and families in Illinois who qualify as low-income, paying $250 for a fine means the lights in the house will literally shut off, mom and dad will have no fuel to get to work, or there will be no hot meals on the table. Even a $40 fine has a tangible impact on the safety, security, and wellbeing of an entire family.
I am writing to you because of the ProPublica investigation into the practice of police, in some cases working for school districts as school resource officers, issuing costly tickets to students for behavioral infractions. The tickets require families to pay money they may not have and often require students to miss school attending administrative hearings.
Multiple state laws in the Illinois School Code intend to prohibit the practice of ticketing students as a form of discipline and require schools to use restorative methods before resorting to punitive or exclusionary practices. However, some school districts have found loopholes between the Illinois School Code and the Municipal Code and abdicated their responsibility for student discipline to local law enforcement.
If your district/schools are engaging in this practice, I implore you to immediately stop and consider both the cost and the consequences of these fines.
We are asking our students to do the very same thing: to stop and think about the consequences of their actions.
There is no evidence that issuing costly tickets and taking away valuable learning time leads to any positive changes in students’ behavior. There is no evidence that tickets lead to fewer fights or less vaping. Rather than improve truancy, they may actually worsen student attendance. The only consequences of the tickets are to impose a financial burden on already struggling families and to make students feel even less cared for, less welcome, and less included at school, which in turn leads to more antisocial and defiant behavior.
ISBE has prioritized building schools’ and districts’ understanding of and capacity to implement trauma-informed and restorative discipline practices. I want to make sure you are aware of these efforts, and that you can make use of them.
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We have dedicated nearly $2 million in federal pandemic relief funds to create the Partnership for Disciplinary Equity with the University of Illinois-Springfield, Loyola University Chicago, and Empathic Instruction.
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We jointly released guidance on discipline with the Illinois Attorney General.
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We created the Student Care Department in 2020 with staff dedicated to supporting school districts in making enduring changes to discipline, among other issues concerning student safety and wellbeing.
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We are working with the school districts that have the highest rates of suspensions, expulsions, and racial disproportionality in discipline on developing and implementing improvement plans.
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ISBE advocated for, and Gov. Pritzker included, $12 million in the FY 2023 budget proposal for increased capacity at Regional Offices of Education to address truancy.
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We have launched seven Social-Emotional Learning Hubs across the state in partnership with the Center for Childhood Resilience at Lurie Children’s Hospital. These hubs exist exclusively to help you implement data-driven, trauma-responsive strategies for meeting students’ needs.
We are here to partner with you to shift toward more effective policies for responding to students’ behavior. There are great examples around the state of schools and districts connecting students with counseling, community service, and educational programs to address the root causes of students’ disruptive behavior and create teachable moments that lead to improvements in how students interact with their peers, educators, and the school environment. In fact, several districts were referenced in the article for using appropriate discretion in handling student infractions. If your district has questions about student discipline or access to resources about training on restorative practices, please contact ISBE at studentcare@isbe.net.
ISBE plans to survey school districts to learn more about their practices and policies related to student discipline. ISBE will also investigate noncompliance with state law, where appropriate, and work with lawmakers to close loopholes in state law.
Our decisions as leaders mean the difference between a family having food on the table or not. Our actions put students on the path toward graduation and a successful career or on the path to disengagement, dropping out, and criminal justice involvement. Our students and families are in our hands. Please put yourself in their shoes.
Sincerely,
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