Family advocacy group condemns ticketing Illinois students for bad behavior

[May 11, 2022] By Zeta Cross | The Center Square contributor

(The Center Square) – Ticketing students who misbehave may lead to worse results. Parents and education officials now are calling for an end to the practice.

Schools who call the police to issue tickets to students who are caught smoking, skipping school or getting into fights have been condemned by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and State Superintendent of Education Carmen Ayala.

Parent Cassie Creswell, the director and president of the statewide organization Families for Public Schools, told The Center Square that fining students for bad behavior hurts families who live paycheck to paycheck.

“Addressing the root causes of disruptive and antisocial behavior is what works to keep kids engaged and in school,” Creswell said.

Creswell argues that counselors and social workers are needed in schools to address discipline issues.

“Teachers don’t have time for that,” she said.

Creswell also argued that disciplinary policies in schools are very vague – not clearly spelled out and uniform.

There are more than 850 school districts across Illinois. A Chicago Tribune/ProPublica report found that 141 school districts out of 199 reviewed across the state were issuing thousands of tickets a year to students for offenses that include disruptive behavior, truancy, vaping, littering and alcohol and drug use. The tickets require parents to pay fines that can amount to several hundred dollars. Families who fail to pay can face debt collection and wage garnishment.

“That doesn’t solve anything at all,” Creswell said. “It just does not address the real issue at all and it will in fact make things worse.”

In 2015, the Illinois legislature passed a law prohibiting the fining of students by schools. By calling the police to issue tickets and fines directly to students, schools are circumventing the intent of the law, the Tribune-ProPublica investigation found, bringing the practice back to light in a report published on April 29.

“If your district/schools are engaging in this practice, I implore you to immediately stop," Ayala emphasized in a statement to school officials across the state.

The practice harms both schools and families, Ayala said.
 

“The only consequences of the tickets are to impose a financial burden on already-struggling families and to make students feel even less cared for, less welcome and less included at school, which in turn leads to more antisocial and defiant behavior,” Ayala wrote.

In some municipalities, so many tickets are being issued that the majority of people who appear in municipal hearing rooms are there for student-related offenses, the report found.

Ayala said the Illinois State Board of Education intends to survey school districts to learn more about their disciplinary practices.