Illinois rethinks Zero-Tolerance policies

Illinois rethinks Zero-Tolerance policies

James Thorpe

Springfield,IL- A new law would seek to eliminate zero-tolerance policies in Illinois. The bill seeks to put a limit on long-term suspensions and expulsions for students in certain situations. The bill’s ultimate goal is to change school district’s policies from “remove the troubled student and refer them to law enforcement” to “how can we get this student back in school and become a functioning class member”. The bill, which was sponsored by Chicago Democrat Sen. Kimberly Lightford, was passed last year with overwhelming support and it is part of a nationwide trend of states passing laws that end zero-tolerance policies. Colorado and North Carolina both passed similar laws in 2011 and Florida passed a similar law too in 2009.

This new law now requires students to suspend students more than three-days only in cases where they pose a threat to the school and all other disciplinary actions have been used up. This would mean that the student has exhausted both counseling and after-school programs as options. For long-term suspensions schools would now be required to give the student support services while they’re away and allow them to make up all missed work. The schools would also be required to submit an explanation as to why the student was expelled to the state. During the 2015 school year 296,400 students were suspended down from almost 340,000 in 2014. Suspensions longer than 10 days decreased from 1,200 in 2014 to a little over 650 in 2015. This law does aim to cut the racial disparity in suspensions as black students are more likely than their peers to be suspended. This trend was brought to light by an Associated Press investigation which uncovered that more than 50% of students suspended were black in 2009 even though they only make-up almost 20% of enrollment.