A blll to prevent Illinois schools from having police punish students by issuing tickets and fines is being revived in the General Assembly.
The first effort, in 2022, stalled amid concerns that the wording would prohibit law enforcement from intervening in serious matters.
A new version closes that loophole, clarifying that students still can be arrested for criminal action, but cannot be issued fines or tickets for municipal ordinance violations. It was introduced Tuesday by two Chicago Democrats: state Sen. Karina Villa and state Rep. La Shawn K. Ford.
The impetus for the original effort was a 2022 report by Propublica and the Chicago Tribune that exposed the practice.
“Students received tickets for infractions as minor as littering, making loud noises or using offensive words or gestures,” Angelica Jimenez, directing attorney for the National Center for Youth Law, said at a news conference Tuesday.
From 2019 through 2021, roughly 11,800 tickets were issued across 70% of school districts in Illinois, according to the 2022 report.
Ticketing can create a significant financial burden on families and disrupt the students’ education, Ford said at Tuesday’s news conference.
“The behavior problems are not being addressed, so it literally pushes them further away from school instead of helping them learn from their mistakes,” Ford said.
Illinois School Code bans fees as a form of discipline, but school administrators began referring students to law enforcement for violating local ordinances.
“This is a punishment of poverty,” Breonna Roberts, co-chair of the Faith Coalition’s Educational Equity Task Force in Springfield, said Tuesday. “A single ticket can lead to court appearances, missed school or even permanent records that follow these children into adulthood.”
Some fines went as high as $750, the state maximum on such violations — and collection fees, late fees and legal fees could push the total even higher, Aimee Galvin, government affairs director for the student advocacy group Stand for Children Illinois’ said.
Not all school districts in Illinois issue tickets to their students, Galvin said Tuesday, but “if you’re unlucky enough that your school does this practice, you could end up truly paying for it.”