Illinois’ AG Said It’s Illegal for Schools to Use Police to Ticket Students. But His Office Told Only One District.

by Jodi S. Cohen and Jennifer Smith Richards

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In the strongest rebuke yet of Illinois school districts that ask police to ticket misbehaving students, the state attorney general has declared that the practice — still being used across the state — is illegal and should stop.

The attorney general’s office, which had been investigating student ticketing in one of Illinois’ largest high school districts, found that Township High School District 211 in Palatine broke the law when administrators directed police to fine its students for school-based conduct, and that the practice had an “unjustified disparate impact” on Black and Latino students.

“We strongly encourage other districts and police departments to review their policies and practices,” the office told ProPublica.

But the attorney general’s office did not alert other districts of its findings, which came in July, and did not issue guidance that the common practice violates the law. That means its findings against the suburban Chicago district could have a narrow effect.

The office also said that it is not investigating other districts for similar civil rights violations.

In 2022, a ProPublica and Chicago Tribune investigation, “The Price Kids Pay,” revealed how local police officers were writing students tickets that resulted in fines of up to $750. The tickets, for violating local ordinances, are considered noncriminal offenses and can be punishable only by a fine. The misbehavior included having vape pens, missing class, and participating in verbal or minor physical altercations.

In response, Gov. JB Pritzker and two state superintendents of education said schools should not rely on police to handle student misconduct.

State lawmakers have tried several times to pass legislation intended to stop the practice by specifically prohibiting schools from involving police in minor disciplinary matters. But the bills have stalled. School officials have argued ticketing is a necessary tool to manage student behavior, and some lawmakers worried that limiting officers’ role in schools could lead to unsafe conditions.

Rep. La Shawn Ford, a Democrat from Chicago, told ProPublica this month that he plans to try again next year. “We don’t want police doing schools’ work,” Ford said.

He said revised legislation will aim to address school officials’ concerns and will make clear that school employees can still involve police in criminal matters.

“What will really address this is a state law that would have an impact on all Illinois schools. That is the only possible way I see because it is so pervasive across Illinois,” said Angie Jiménez, an attorney at the National Center for Youth Law, which has pushed for reforms in Illinois law.

Jimenez said fining students as discipline should have stopped more than nine years ago when state law banned doing so. “It is really shocking to me to see that less than a decade later, you are having this issue and we are still trying to come to the table to reach an agreement,” she said. “Meanwhile, our students and families are the ones that are being sacrificed in this process.”

Illinois State Board of Education spokesperson Lindsay Record said the agency continues to oppose the practice of issuing tickets to students. “ISBE is evaluating potential policy solutions for the issue,” Record said, though she did not elaborate on what those might be. Pritzker’s office did not respond to questions from ProPublica.

The attorney general’s office decided to focus its investigation on District 211 after officials reviewed a first-of-its-kind database published by ProPublica and the Tribune. The database documented nearly 12,000 tickets issued in dozens of districts over three school years, the reasons police ticketed students and, when available, the racial breakdown of students who received tickets.

The state investigation of District 211, which lasted two years, focused on the district’s two high schools in Palatine, a suburb northwest of Chicago. From 2018 through 2022, Palatine police ticketed students nearly 400 times, mostly at Palatine High School. Black and Latino students sometimes received tickets when white students were given lesser punishments or even offered help to cope with substance use, the investigation found. Palatine police ticketed Fremd High School students, too, but much less frequently.

“Police reports show that, typically, District administrators conducted the initial investigation, then called the school resource officer for service and directed the officer to issue a ticket to the student,” according to a letter Attorney General Kwame Raoul sent to the district in late July after his office concluded its investigation. Officers ticketed students even when police hadn’t witnessed the alleged misconduct, investigators found.

The attorney general’s office told District 211 that it should make it clear in school handbooks and agreements with local police that school administrators are prohibited from directing or asking police to issue tickets to students as a form of discipline, including for disorderly conduct or having tobacco or vaping products. District policies also should make clear that the preference is for alternative approaches, such as a substance abuse program.

Raoul’s letter noted that since the 2022-23 school year, the district and police department have “drastically reduced” the use of school-based ticketing.

The district, which enrolls nearly 12,000 students across three suburbs, has denied wrongdoing since the investigation began. A district spokesperson declined to answer questions from ProPublica and instead provided a letter an attorney for the district wrote to the attorney general’s office criticizing the findings.

“None of the administrators interviewed indicated that they ‘directed’ the School Resource Officers or other police officials to issue tickets or make arrests,” the attorney wrote, adding that only police have the authority to issue tickets. The letter said that school officials are required to report to law enforcement certain offenses, such as those involving weapons or drugs. In those serious matters, however, police can and do arrest students — not ticket them. The district’s response letter says it will review its student handbooks and policies. However, current high school handbooks still state that students can be sent to police for having vaping products.

The district’s records cited in the attorney general’s findings showed that in the 2021-22 school year, Black and Hispanic students received about 68% of the tickets issued at school, even though they accounted for only about 33% of district enrollment. White students made up 42% of district enrollment, but they received only 24% of the tickets.

The state investigators attributed that, in part, to school administrators choosing not to involve police in white students’ behavioral issues, offering them therapies instead of punishment.

The mother of a student ticketed in 2022 said that while she hopes district officials stop involving police in school conduct, she also thinks there should be a remedy for students ticketed in the past. Her son, who is Black, was a 16-year-old sophomore at Palatine High School when he received a $200 ticket for damaging a fence near the school. ProPublica reporters met the family when the teen and his mother attended a hearing to fight the ticket; it was dismissed after another student acknowledged he had caused the damage.

“I would hope that if they know they were doing it illegally, they would wipe all the tickets out. That is what they should do. If anyone had to pay fines, they should be reimbursed,” said the mother, who asked not to be identified to protect the privacy of her son, who graduated from high school in the spring and is now in college.

The attorney general’s office also focused on the village of Palatine, and investigators found that it, too, had violated the law. Palatine police issued truancy tickets to students for missing a single day of school or less, even though state law prohibits that as punishment. The village also set the fine at $200, even though the maximum amount permitted by state law is $100, investigators found.

The attorney general’s office recommended that the village change or repeal its ordinance. The village manager and the chief of the Palatine Police Department did not respond to questions from reporters.

While some schools have stopped involving police in minor student discipline matters in recent years, others have continued. ProPublica obtained new records from several districts in different parts of the state that had been spotlighted in “The Price Kids Pay.”

At Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School southwest of Chicago, police have issued more than 60 tickets to students since the start of the 2023-24 school year for disorderly conduct, possession of tobacco or cannabis, and consumption of alcohol. The fines are as much as $175, and the school superintendent said the district is focused on providing a safe environment.

Officers in northwest suburban Carpentersville wrote dozens of tickets last school year at Dundee-Crown High School and at Carpentersville Middle School and have ticketed this year, too. A district spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

At East Peoria Community High School, in central Illinois, students continue to get tickets that cost from $75 to $450 for fighting and possession of tobacco or cannabis. Students as young as 12 at the nearby junior high school also have been issued tickets.

East Peoria High School Superintendent Marjorie Greuter said students no longer are ticketed for truancy and officers based at the school decide when to ticket students for other misconduct. She wrote in an email that if students could be ticketed outside of school for violating a local ordinance, “it is still our opinion that not doing so inside the building presents a safety concern.”

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Jodi S. Cohen and Jennifer Smith Richards.