Creating a brighter future for us all includes ensuring our juvenile court system is just and fair to everyone involved, and aimed towards healing, youth development, and reducing recidivism. It also means building school systems where all students feel embraced and connected through trauma-informed, healing-centered practices–rather than isolated and pushed out through punitive discipline.
Our recent work has focused on banning two punitive practices that have no evidence-basis, drive families into debt, and ineffectively punish students – often those who can least afford it. The first bans courts from issuing fines and fees to juveniles. SB 1463 (Peters/Slaughter) prohibits courts from imposing fees on justice system-involved youth. Previously, these fees could add up quickly for a wide range of costs, like electronic ankle monitoring, detention, probation supervision, legal representation, and more. Courts could also impose fines for teenage infractions such as staying out past curfew or skipping school.
The fees and fines can range from $25 to $800 and quickly add up to thousands of dollars for a single family. The new law not only bans future fees to youth, but it also clears previous debts created by these fees.
We are proud to partner with the Debt-Free Justice Illinois Coalition. This was part of a national effort by conservative, moderate, and progressive organizations to abolish these fees and fines in Illinois. Illinois joined a growing list of 20+ states that have eliminated juvenile court fees and fines.
As we were working to ban court fines and fees, another egregious practice came to light. ProPublica and the Chicago Tribune analyzed data that found nearly 12,000 tickets were issued to students from August 2018 through June 2021. Despite recent laws designed to prohibit schools from issuing fines and fees as discipline and referring truant students to police, school personnel referred thousands of students to local municipalities for the purpose of issuing fines and fees as a disciplinary consequence for school-based behaviors. The system is unfair to students, who must miss school to attend a municipal hearing that does not guarantee right to due process, like access to legal counsel.
Preliminary results from our FOIA project show that the vast majority of these tickets are issued for infractions related to vaping and smoking, which are far more effectively deterred through counseling and secession support than through a fine. Consequences for most student misbehavior can and should be handled through a district’s discipline policy. We can also work together to strengthen the intent of those earlier laws to prohibit fines and fees as a disciplinary consequence for students.
Finally, while we have mostly focused our advocacy efforts on disciplinary fines and fees, these are often symptoms of a larger problem. We have heard loud and clear from school administrators and teachers that educators are desperate for more support dealing with students who have been exposed to trauma and feel disconnected at school. Though few will defend the use of ticketing to deal with school-based discipline, many express deep concerns with the lack of tools and resources to adequately support their students. In response to these concerns, 2024-25 Stand Policy Fellows compiled a list of recommendations to improving school discipline practices with an eye toward improving equity and education outcomes throughout the state.
Every student feels safe, supported, and welcome in their school, focused proactively on nurturing connections and minimizing disciplinary issues, guided by clear and evidence-based guidelines to address school-based disciplinary infractions through trauma-informed, healing-centered practices.
Join us in urging legislators to pass a bill that prohibits school personnel from issuing municipal ordinance violation tickets to students.
Join us in signing a pledge to stand up against the unjust practice of municipal ticketing and work toward creating learning environments that leave students and teachers feeling supported.
How have you, your student, or your family been impacted by unfair punitive discipline practices? Share your story using our online video collector!