A plan moving through the Illinois legislature would curb the use of school expulsions, zero-tolerance policies and monetary disciplinary fines.
Students expelled from school become five times more likely to drop out and three times more likely to be incarcerated.
A Chicago youth group used that data to mount a campaign that has resulted in legislation making out-of-school suspensions and expulsions the last resort, after all in-house measures have been exhausted.
Campaign director Quentin Anderson spoke from personal experience, telling a House education committee he racked up 54 referrals as an 8th grader, but was not expelled.
“I had an assistant principal who pulled me aside and told me that I was too smart for the dumb things that I was doing. He said that he wasn’t going to let my behavior at age 13 affect what I was going to do at 23, 33 and 43.”
The measure has already won Senate approval. If it becomes law, it would take effect in September 2016.
