Latest news with #IllinoisSchoolCode
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Illinois bans police from ticketing students for misbehavior
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WTVO) — Both houses of the Illinois legislature have passed a bill that would prevent police from ticketing students for misbehavior in school, and it now heads to Gov. JB Pritzker's desk to be signed into law. amends the Illinois School Code to prevent school personnel from referring a truant student to law enforcement, including the School Resource Officer, or issuing a fine as punishment. It also prevents schools from issuing a monetary fine as disciplinary punishment for any violations that occur on school grounds or during school-related events. A 2022 investigation found that ticketing students in schools is common across the state, with some students fined up to $750. The law applies to all public schools, including charter schools, and goes into effect for the 2027-2028 school year. Schools will also be made to report how often they involve police in student matters each year, and keep records of race, gender, and disabilities. A 2015 law prevented Illinois schools from fining students directly, but the study found that schools were getting around the law by calling police to ticket students for violating local ordinances. Rep. La Shawn Ford (D-Chicago) said the goal of the law 'is to make sure if there is a violation of school code, the school should use their discipline policies.' According to the initial study, 12,000 tickets were written to students over a three year period, and Black students were twice as likely to receive a ticket as white students. 'It leads to the school-to-prison pipeline by legislating discipline,' Ford previously. 'There's no reason for a student to be engaging with law enforcement when they break a school rule. Teachers and principals should deal with it by helping correct the behavior, by teaching lessons, not issuing citations with the law enforcement. Our goal should be to keep young people out of the criminal justice system, not introduce them or lead them.' Under the law, police can arrest students for crimes or violence. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Illinois bill may stop police from ticketing students for truancy issues
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WTVO) — The Illinois House is considering legislation, passed by the Senate, that would prohibit law enforcement from issuing students tickets for issues such as truancy. would amend the Illinois School Code to prevent school personnel from referring a truant student to law enforcement, including the School Resource Officer, or issuing a fine as punishment. In the House, Rep. La Shawn Ford (D-Chicago) is sponsoring the bill. 'We know that anytime young people have to deal with law enforcement as minors, as young people, it's a pipeline to the criminal justice system,' Ford told . 'It leads to the school-to-prison pipeline by legislating discipline,' he said. 'There's no reason for a student to be engaging with law enforcement when they break a school rule. Teachers and principals should deal with it by helping correct the behavior, by teaching lessons, not issuing citations with the law enforcement. Our goal should be to keep young people out of the criminal justice system, not introduce them or lead them.' Truancy is defined as unexcused absences accounting for more than 1% but less than 5% of the school year. Rockford Public Schools a 46% chronic absenteeism rate for 2024. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, RPS recorded a high of 35.4% in 2019. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Chicago Tribune
10-04-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Group files federal complaint over Deerfield transgender student using locker room
Deerfield Public Schools District 109 is in the national crosshairs, with a conservative group filing a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) accusing the district of forcing middle school students to change into gym clothes in front of a transgender student. The incident previously gained national attention after the mother of one of the students, Nicole Georgas, went on Fox News to criticize the district over the alleged incident. She also spoke during a school board meeting to demand that locker rooms and bathrooms be designated for either biological males or biological females, arguing there is 'already a gender-neutral option.' In a previous statement, the district said students are not required to change into gym clothes in front of others in locker rooms and have 'multiple options to change in a private location if they wish.' The district said its policies and procedures, including those related to students' use of locker rooms, are in line with state laws, the Illinois School Code and guidance from the Illinois State Board of Education. 'District 109 is committed to providing a learning environment where all students and staff are respected and supported,' the statement said. Conservative nonprofit America First Legal (AFL) announced Tuesday it had filed a complaint with the criminal section of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, urging it to conduct a criminal investigation into District 109 and its administrators over the alleged incident. A DOJ spokesman declined comment, but a department source with knowledge of the complaint confirmed it was submitted. Attempts to reach the Illinois State Board of Education for comment were unsuccessful. AFL claims the district violated Title IX and President Donald Trump's Executive Order 14168, called 'Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.' AFL was founded in 2021 by Stephen Miller, a senior Trump advisor. According to AFL's allegations, the district's policy of allowing the transgender student to use the girls' bathroom and locker room led to a protest by a group of teenage girls who refused to change for gym class. AFL claims school administrators 'admonished (the students), and threatened them with discipline for 'misgendering' the boy and refusing to change for PE.' 'Shockingly, the school administrators, including the superintendent of student services, and the assistant principal, entered the girls' locker room and used their authority to intimidate the girls into changing in front of the boy,' the AFL said. In the release, Ian Prior, an AFL senior counsel, claimed the students' 'First, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights' had been 'sacrificed at the altar of radical transgender madness and the woke government bureaucrats that view the Constitution as nothing more than toilet paper' and district officials 'should face the long arm of our Justice Department.' Protestors on both sides of the controversy were expected at Thursday evening's school board meeting, with Moms For Liberty Lake County and several LGBTQ organizations expected to advocate for support. Kristal Larson, who is the executive director of the LGBTQ+ Center Lake County, Avon Township's clerk and a transgender woman, said during a transgender visibility event last month that there is 'a lot of anger' and 'concern' over what has been happening in Deerfield. 'There's fear that other schools may be targeted in the same way, and that Lake County can become unsafe,' Larson said. But the controversy over the unidentified transgender student's bathroom and locker room use goes far beyond Lake County's, and even the state's, borders, Larson added, saying the transgender community has been a target of the new presidential administration. Executive orders from the Trump administration seek to stop transgender, nonbinary and intersex people from changing their gender markers on passports or serving in the military, force transgender women in federal prisons to be housed with men and bar them from participation in female sports. The orders also attempt to end gender-affirming care for transgender people younger than 19, and prohibit federal spending on the promotion of 'gender ideology.' 'Across the country, ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex have increasingly used legal and other socially coercive means to permit men to self-identify as women and gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women, from women's domestic abuse shelters to women's workplace showers,' Trump wrote in an executive order. The Deerfield controversy has attracted attention from unusual places. Last month, District 109 put out a statement saying it was aware members of the community had received communications asking them to complete a survey about Deerfield schools, which they clarified were not from the district. In the statement, the district said it was not aware of who was distributing the survey. In late March, Dave Nayak, a Chicago-area politician and former Democrat who unsuccessfully ran for the District 20 seat and said he had turned on the 'radical left,' announced he had commissioned a survey from conservative pollster group M3 about the district's transgender policies, ultimately calling for the district to change its policies.
Fox News
19-03-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Karoline Leavitt vows Trump will keep males out of girls locker rooms amid Illinois school controversy
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed the ongoing national battle over transgender inclusion in girls sports and locker rooms Wednesday. Leavitt was asked about a situation in Deerfield, Illinois, involving a mother who alleged last week that her daughter was forced to change in front of a transgender student in a locker room. The mother, Nicole Georgas, says she filed a complaint with the Department of Justice over the situation involving Deerfield Public Schools. Leavitt did not address Georgas' situation specifically, but vowed that President Donald Trump will tackle the issue at large. "The president has made it incredibly clear that it is the policy of this administration that there are only two genders, male and female," Leavitt said. "And we are not going to tolerate such behavior by men pretending to be women. The president will continue to strongly stand for the rights of women and girls, not just in sports and on athletic fields, but also private spaces like locker rooms and bathrooms." Georgas revealed the complaint during a Board of Education meeting for Deerfield Public School District 109 last week, claiming that the incident took place last month after her daughter refused to change into her uniform during physical education because a biological male student had been present at the time. "The girls want their locker rooms and bathrooms back. They want their privacy back. This is why I'm here tonight. My 13-year-old daughter's well-being, mental health and privacy are at stake," Georgas said during her speech at the board meeting on Thursday. Meanwhile, a Democrat politician has minimized the issue. During an Illinois General Assembly session Tuesday, Illinois Democrat state representative Bob Morgan suggested the girls who alleged they had been forced to change with a transgender student in a locker room had lied about the situation. Morgan, who represents Deerfield, addressed the issue in response to it being brought up by Republican state representative Adam Neimerg, who brought up the allegations by Georgas. "I'm really proud of my community who stood up for those who need to be defended and protected, making sure we have great schools, which we do by the way. We have incredible, incredible schools, incredible families, an incredible community that has come together to deal with this situation. Because it's a lie!" Morgan said. In a statement to Fox News Digital, Deerfield Public Schools District 109 said that no student is required to change in front of others in the locker room and added that the school's policies align with state law. "District 109 is committed to providing a learning environment where all students and staff are respected and supported. Our policies and procedures, including student use of locker rooms, align with state laws, the Illinois School Code, and Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) guidance. No student is required to change into a gym uniform for physical education class in front of others in locker rooms. All students in the middle schools have multiple options to change in a private location if they wish." Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Illinois considers changing high school start times
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WTVO) — High school students in Illinois may be allowed to sleep in a bit more if a new bill becomes law, prohibiting schools from starting earlier than 8:45 a.m. HB2951 was introduced by Rep. Laura Faver Dias (D-62nd), and should amend the Illinois School Code. Student advocates for the bill spoke in the House Education Policy Committee on Wednesday, saying that students who sleep for 8 hours experience better mental health and succeed in classes. Libertyville High School adopted the 8:45 a.m. start time in 2018 and said students have seen significant improvements, WAND reported. According to the , sleeping between 8.5 to 9.5 hours is considered best for teens, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found in 2021 that 77% of students were . A high school in Jackson Hole, Wyoming from 7:35 a.m. to 8:55 a.m. and reported that students slept more, showed up to class on time, and may have helped reduce car accidents. At the , parents complained that a later start time didn't align with their work schedules. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
