Dive Brief:

• In Illinois, a new law requires schools to create discipline procedures that are “more measured” starting next year, the Associated Press reports.
• All zero-tolerance policies will be banned for the 2016-17 academic year, out-of-school suspensions will be limited, and a new advisory board will be created to wrangle disciplinary rules and regulation.
• Superintendents and other administrators are reportedly supporting the new law, saying it will lead to greater engagement from students. 

Dive Insight:

It’s no secret that out-of-school suspensions have contributed to a “discipline gap” in public schools, with minority students often being disproportionately punished. A recent national study on school discipline from UCLA found that disabled students were suspended at two to three times the rate of non-disabled students, and 16% of black students had been suspended, as opposed to 5% of whites.

Suspension rates vary from state to state. “The most recent data collected from the Office of Civil Rights shows that over 3 million students are suspended or expelled from schools every year,” the Huffington Post reported. 

Other cities are moving in a similar direction, in an attempt to dismantle the phenomenon of the school-to-prison pipeline. Seattle previously banned out-of-school suspensions for elementary school students.