Bill Amendment: IL HB4208 | 2017-2018 | 100th General Assembly

NOTE: For additional amemendments please see the Bill Drafting List

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Bill Title: SAFE SCHOOLS/HEALTHY LEARNING

Status: 2018-11-28 - Bill Dead - No Positive Action Taken - Amendatory Veto [HB4208 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2017-HB4208-House_Amendment_001.html

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Rep. Emanuel Chris Welch

Filed: 4/23/2018

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AMENDMENT TO HOUSE BILL 4208
AMENDMENT NO. ______. Amend House Bill 4208 by replacing
everything after the enacting clause with the following:
"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

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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.

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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

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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

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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) many 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; (vii)
the use of school-based law enforcement has not been proven
effective as a strategy to promote safe and productive schools;
and (viii) eliminating unnecessary school-based arrests and
law enforcement presence in school while promoting the use of

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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

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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. Grant
funds may be used to transition from school-based law
enforcement personnel to alternative patrol structures.
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

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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

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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.".