Educators say a 2015 Illinois law meant to address racial disparities in student discipline has had unintended results.
SB 100, which was passed in 2015, was originally intended to address racial disparities in student discipline, including the over-identification of black and brown students in suspensions and expulsions.
However, in many districts, the bill led to a lack of appropriate intervention altogether, with reports showing nearly one in five Illinois teachers saying they've been assaulted on the job in the last five years.
"We did a survey of our members in the spring and it is true, 20% said they had been assaulted on the job. You know, either kicked, punched, hit, bit or verbally assaulted," said Al Llorens, President of the Illinois Education Association Thursday on Total Information A.M.
Llorens says that a big issue with the bill was that there were no policies or guidance given to districts, causing them to vary in its implementation.
"Typically, blockbuster legislation like this are provided with policies and supports to district, but that never happened in this case," said Llorens. "The implementation was varied based on the district around the state and what administrators decided to do and quite frankly, guidance would have helped them quite a bit, because the intention of SB 100 was never to give students a hall pass to allow them to behave in any way that they wanted to."
Those lack of policies, guidance and support have been addressed in Senate Bill 1400 (SB 1400), which will require the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) to draft and publish guidance on evidence-based interventions and the re-engagement of at-risk students.
The bill passed through the Illinois General Assembly and is now on its way to being signed into law by Illinois Gov. Jay Pritzker. Llorens is optimistic Pritzker will sign it into law.
"We think that there's a good chance that that's going to happen. But I can't predict anything with 100% certainty," said Llorens.