The Student Care Department is designed to ensure that the collective and individual needs of students are met and that districts are responsive to the needs of children and families. Specifically, the Student Care Department will oversee and monitor all aspects of time out and physical restraint and work to further reduce practices deemed harmful to students. As an initial step, the Illinois State Board Education strengthened training requirements for crisis de-escalation; trauma-informed practices; behavioral management; and mandated robust documentation and reporting of all instances of time out and restraint, including same-day notification to parents/guardians and reporting to ISBE no later than two school days after each instance. The Student Care Department will also be the agency’s point of contact for bullying prevention and bullying policy reviews and complaints, discipline reduction, ISBE’s Student Advisory Council, supports and advocacy pertaining to LGBTQ inclusivity in schools, and will act as the main contact for any student or parent complaints received by the agency with respect to most all areas of the School Code.
Check out this overview of the Student Care Department at the Illinois State Board of Education.
Visit the Student Care Department website.