The “Safe Schools for All Act” is one of many new Illinois laws that went into effect on January 1, 2026. Democratic State Senator Karina Villa sponsored the legislation. WNIJ’s education reporter Peter Medlin talked with her about what the new law does.
Peter Medlin (PM): This new law is meant to ensure kids aren't denied a free public education based on immigration status. How exactly does the law try to do that?
State Senator Karina Villa (KV): These requirements include that there's a process for reviewing and contacting a designated authorized person at the school or school facility who may contact the school's legal counsel if ICE were to show up to the building. Also, the process for authorized persons or legal counsel to review requests to enter a school or school facility, including judicial warrants, non-judicial warrants and subpoenas.
These are all technical words, but let's just play it out: before the law, if ICE were to come into the school, you might have someone at the front office who's frazzled when they see someone in uniform, they call the student down, or they start going through the files without knowing that maybe what they're doing is harmful for the student, because there's no procedure in place.
(PM): Have we seen that over the past year at schools that haven't had these protocols and procedures in place?
(KV): I don't know of any documented cases. However, with the increased presence of ICE, we needed to make sure that families and students knew that there's policy and procedure on the books.
(PM): I've had conversations with school leaders about this and about immigration and I've had several tell me, “We don't have any student immigration status information. We just don't collect that information.” Are there certain situations where schools do have that information about student immigration status?
(KV): Picture a school district where you have a family that's lived in town for 15 years, whether or not it's formally spoken, there are oftentimes that people know information about each other. I could see how, in passing, there could be informally collected information in files, unbeknownst to the person at the front office, maybe something in a student's IEP plan.
(PM): The Supreme Court ruled back in the early ‘80s that schools can't deny kids an education based on this. And so, it's fair to say that one of the big reasons for this legislation is enshrining these protections at the state level, in case there were to be a challenge to that precedent federally?
(KV): Yes, 100%.
(PM): Another part of this is that if a school district violates this law, families can bring a civil lawsuit against the school. Why was that an important piece to include in the legislation?
(KV): A lot of times there is legislation that is passed that doesn't offer much in terms of remedies if something is not followed. This isn't just “the school district didn't follow something,” it's that there was complete negligence and it was almost a sinister act of handing over information intentionally.
(PM): I've heard anecdotally about families who, especially at the beginning of last year were really afraid to send their kids to school, and schools have tried to reassure them that it is a safe place to go. There have been schools like West Chicago, where you're from, who've had staff walk kids home from school and things like that. Are there any families or community members you've heard from recently who are still feeling afraid to send their kids to school?
(KV): There are schools in our communities who immediately put these policies and procedures in place even before the law was passed. There have been communities where maybe the percentage of immigrant students is much less, and so it might not be at the top of mind for those schools. It's those school districts where I am getting calls from that the families are still very concerned about sending their children to school. Those are the school districts that policies such as this are so critical.
(Editor’s note: this interview has been edited for brevity and clarity)
