Advocacy Letter for a Full-Service Community School Expansion Act

 May 1, 2025

The Honorable Richard J. Durbin

United States Senate

711 Hart Senate Office Building Washington D.C., 20510

Dear Senator Durbin,

I am writing to you today to express my full support for the Full-Service Community School Expansion Act and to strongly encourage you to co-sponsor and advocate for it once it reaches the Senate floor. As a social work student in your home state of Illinois and its capital, Springfield, I am fully committed to bridging the education equity gap that is currently being overlooked by politicians—local and otherwise—who should care about the educational outcomes for young, impoverished members of our society.

Poverty, hunger, and instability are just a few words that describe the obstacles that challenge children who would directly benefit from this bill. Full-service community schools do more than address educational outcomes— they offer essential services such as healthcare, after-school programs, mental health counseling, and family support at times when they are needed most. The major causes of educational disparities stem from underfunding and a lack of resources. We must foster environments that are safe, educational, and uplifting for our children—many of whom are constantly overlooked by a political system that claims to be working to build a better future for struggling students.

In Illinois, over 30% of children from preschool through high school live in low-income families, and these students face barriers to learning every day—such as food insecurity, housing instability, and a lack of access to quality healthcare. By investing in this program, we’re not only investing in education, but also in reducing crime rates, strengthening the future workforce, and promoting upward economic mobility. Texas, for example, invested in community school programs through their Community School Grants program. Schools that participated in this program reported higher graduation rates and lower dropout rates overall. This shows that when we invest in the comprehensive needs of students, we see measurable, positive outcomes.

Consider the story of Endra, a local single mother from Springfield, who works two jobs yet still struggles to provide basic necessities like food and school supplies for her children. She had to beg the local school to provide pens and notebooks for her first grader, who often arrives hungry and has difficulty focusing on schoolwork—a fact noted by her teacher. Under the Full-Service Community School model, food would be provided for this young girl, and counseling services would support her mental health. Endra wouldn’t have to live in a constant state of worry about her children while she works two jobs.

I urge you to consider becoming a co-sponsor of this bill. You hold significant influence in the Senate, and your support would champion a cause that lifts the impoverished. These children are not just receiving a quality education—they are overcoming barriers that have been systemically overlooked for decades. This bill addresses that, and it needs a champion: you, Senator Durbin. Your words hold immense weight in the Senate, and this bill requires someone like you to advocate for it.

Thank you for reading and considering supporting this program. I have attached my contact information in case you have any further questions. Please feel free to reach out to me at any time. Together, we can transform our communities and the lives of those within them.

As an advocacy letter assignment, this is pretty close to perfect.  In an actual advocacy letter, you would cut it down by a third or half, but this is an assignment, so let's look at what this letter does correctly.

First, it's addressed to the correct person for a piece of federal legislation, and shows some research inasmuch as you know that Durbin isn't yet a co-sponsor (you invite him to become one) and that the bill won't be in a committee where Durbin is serving (you suggest he vote for it on the Senate Floor vote).  When you elected representative or senator is not in a committee that is looking at a bill, you can suggest that your person contact friends or associates who are on the committee, or have a word with the committee chair or ranking member, to see if they can put some influence to support a bill even before it gets to a floor vote.  In your case, suggesting that Durbin become a co-sponsor is a similar request.

You offer three critical points to help convince your audience to support the bill.  You offer facts about the need for this legislation, pointing out that 30% of Illinois children live in low income families, and pointing out that children in low income families have more obstacles in the way of their successful education.  This is a point that establishes the need for this legislation. 

 Then, you offer facts that support the idea that this legislation will be be effective, citing examples form Texas.  This establishes that there is good evidence that this legislation will help solve the problem it is intended to address.

Then, you offer a personal anecdote about a person, showing in concrete ways how the bill (if turned into a law) would help that specific person.  This sort of example case study with a moral narrative (the person suffers without the legislation, and the person will suffer less with the legislation) is highly effective in convincing people.

Further, you know that Durbin is liberal, and the appeal in this letter is written to convince a liberal person, with your emphasis on the care ethic and the duty of the government to intervene to create fair competition in society. 

The letter is well-written, and the tone of the letter is respectful.  This is a good example. 

Extending the School Day and After School Programs

Being a single parent is most likely one of the hardest jobs someone could have. Despite how many kids one has, working and providing for them is extremely difficult. Finding affordable and safe childcare is hard. When their children get to school age, parents should be relieved that finally, they can send their child to school while they work. That is not the case we find, however. With the hours of school that is in session and not enough access to childcare, it is still hard for parents to find the balance between being a good worker and a good parent. The hours that schools run and the lack of before and after school childcare make it still very difficult for parents to find time to be with their kids.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the average number of hours in the school day is 6.64. The average school day ends at about 2:50 or 3:00 and starts at 7:00 or 8:00. Those hours do not coincide with the hours adults work. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average number of hours for full-time workers is 8 hours. With the average workday starting at 9. Single jobholders also work 8 hours, and people with only a high school diploma work 8 hours as well. Parents have to come to the hard decision of either spending money on childcare or else taking off work to pick up or drop off their child or work. Parents should not have to decide between losing their job, money, or time with their families.  

Hours in the school day are not the only problem parents are facing. The lack of childcare is a battle as well. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 2008, out of the 49,700 public elementary schools, 56% had some form of after school program. 46% had stand-alone daycare. Even 24% of areas with concentrated poverty have access to after school programs as well, according to the After School Alliance. That leaves a high number of families who are trying to make ends meet without any assistance from educational facilities. If school hours are inhibiting parents from attending work, having no childcare is also an issue. It also results negatively for children involved. Having no after school enrichment and assistance can contribute to low school involvement and commitment, higher drug, and alcohol use, and it increases the number of arrests. Not only does it help parents, but it also helps the students become successful. 

With these facts, schools changing hours to fit parents’ schedules better, and providing parents with better childcare makes sense. Parents should not have to choose between taking off work and not making money or having their children be in school. If the school day started at nine and ended around four, it would better accommodate the parents. These ideas would help parents by having them take their children to work before school. It would also help parents to find someone to pick up their child if needed. Parents would not have to leave work early or arrive late because they had to take their child to school. The increased access to after-school care would also assist families and, ultimately, the children by providing them with programs if they do have to work longer than 4:00. Teachers who work long hours can be paid overtime, and money for this bill can come from the federal level. The department of Education could use ESSA funds, and Title l can also increase to help. Programs such as the 21st Century and other after school care based programs could also provide more compensation for longer school days and better after school care. Let us help the families of our communities grow more reliable and better by providing more convenient school hours and expand after school care.

National School Lunch Programs

Without the National School Lunch Program so many children would go hungry at school. The program was established in 1946 and signed into law by President Harry Truman. The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) helps plan balanced meals in public and private schools. The NSLP helps develop healthy and educational outcomes for students coming from low-income families. Students from low-income families are eligible for the National School Lunch Program. These students receive price reduced lunches or free meals at school. Families with incomes below 130% of the poverty line and receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Temporary Assistance of Needy Families (TANF) is eligible for free lunches. Families with incomes between 130-185% of the poverty line are eligible for price reduced lunches. Most of these students are also eligible for snack, breakfast, and summer lunch programs. Schools cannot charge reduced price lunch families more than 40 cents per reduced lunch. Some students are still going hungry, because their family doesn’t know about the NSLP or they don’t qualify.

The NSLP provided price reduced lunches to over 30.4 million daily in 2016 at a cost of $13.6 billion. Behind SNAP in the nation the National School Lunch Program is the second largest food and nutrition assistance program. In 2015-2016 school years, over 98,000 schools participated in NSLP. The meals must meet federal nutrition standards. The program is administered on a state and federal level. On a federal level it is through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. On a state level it is through the State Department of Education or Agriculture. 

The program enhances children’s learning ability by contributing to their physical and mental well-being. It has always been said that students who don’t eat proper meals have a harder time concentrating and learning in the classroom.

Documents are kept to prove the lunch program follows the state and federal guidelines. For example, applications submitted by families for free or reduced meals, by site and description of the follow-up actions to verify eligibility. They must keep record of income, expenditures, along with contributions received. Record the numbers of free, price reduced, and full price lunches in categories served each day. The other record that is kept is meal production and inventory records that show the amounts and types of food used. 

Schools get paid on a reimbursement basis. Agencies get paid by the number of meals served. Schools have to submit a monthly reimbursement claim to the Child Nutrition Information Payment System. The department has to then review and approve the reimbursement claim. The claim then goes to the State Controller’s office. After this the check will be issued. It takes about four to six weeks after submitting the reimbursement claim before receiving the check. 

Student urges State Rep to support funding for Safe Schools (alternative schools)

To the Honorable Representative Avery Bourne,

207 North State Street

P.O. Box 38

Litchfield, IL  62056

Dear Representative Bourne,

I’m writing to you as your constituent and also because you serve on the House Appropriations Committee for Elementary & Secondary Education.  I’m mainly writing to ask you to be aware of issues that are arising after the 99th General Assembly passed (in August of 2015) the “Senate Bill 100”) changing student discipline policies and eliminating zero tolerance in our schools. This bill restricted the use of out-of-school suspensions and imposed rules about how school districts could use such expulsions or suspensions.  Now that schools must do more to establish discipline without the use of suspensions, we may need to spend more money on interventions that keep schools safe and maintain good order in schools without the use of zero tolerance.  Please be aware of this and look for opportunities to fund any school spending that can efficiently provide good discipline and safety in our public schools. Please look out for opportunities to fund interventions that are likely to work and are cost-effective. 

I have lived in this district all my life. I am beginning to have more interest in things going on in my community and the state of Illinois. I have never written to you before, but I have seen you in parades, and heard about you from my family and on television. I am not loyal to the Republican or Democratic parties. I vote for the candidate themselves rather than their party. Your support for policies and funding for public schools that would make our schools safe and orderly places for students to learn would impress and please me. 

Today I am writing you to let you know about a policy that I am for, but I think there should be some changes made. I’m referring to the new Illinois law (Senate Bill 100, from the 99th General Assembly) to prompt changes in discipline policies. This policy pushes to make suspension and expulsions a disciplinary last resort.

I agree with part of this policy. I agree with making suspension and explosion a last resort. I disagree with zero tolerance policies in which school administrators too easily rely on suspending or expelling students because most children do not like to go to school. It is almost like rewarding children for bad behavior by sending them home. When they are at home they can play video games or watch television as a pleasure. Some parents do not discipline their child for being suspended or expelled. I think in-school suspension or sending the child to a safe school would be more beneficial.

I especially want you to consider the benefits of safe schools. The school in my town sends disruptive students to a safe school called ChrisMont. Other schools in Montgomery County send their at-risk students there as well. Chrismont provides at-risk students with ways to cope with their problems along with providing them an education. I think Chrismont is a great alternative for disciplining students. Some students go there for a couple months, a year, or for the rest of their education. It all depends on how the child reacts to the program.  You or your staffers can become informed about safe schools by looking at information provided by the Illinois Coalition for Educating At-Risk Youth (ICEAR). 

We need to find alternative ways to help discipline child in school. Children learn from people around them. If we can discipline the students better maybe we won’t have as many school shootings. It doesn’t hurt to try something new. We don’t know if it works until it is tried. I know the students who go to Chrismont and come back to the public school have a lot more respect for the teachers and other students. We have to do everything possible to keep our children safe.  There is some good evidence and testimony about the quality of the Safe Schools (alternative schools) in Illinois, that I hope you know about.

Of course, there is going to be a worry about funding safe schools. Chrismont offers non-profit educational services under the Special Education Services along with transportation.  Since you are on the appropriations committee for schools, I hope you will keep an eye out for the funding that goes to safe schools. They seem to be doing a good job, and they provide a necessary service for students who aren’t thriving in the mainstream public schools of Illinois. 

Thank you for your time,

[Student in the SWK-355 Policy Course]

Education needs more support and emphasis, and so does policy

 Before taking this class, I had almost no interest in advocacy and the idea kind of annoyed me, even though I knew it would be important for me to advocate for my future clients. Since being involved in the class this semester, I have started to develop a deeper understanding and interest in advocacy related topics. For one, I am looking forward to attending the advocacy day at the capital. I think it will be a great look into advocacy in action. This course has challenged me to keep updated on current events and to know what is happening in policy. Growing up, I have been so used to completely ignoring anything political going on, since it did not directly pertain to me. 

Another thing that is interesting to me about policy is how if you look under the initial statement or claim that the press, media, or government make, there is usually something deeper going on underneath. In class we talked about Trump’s idea to give drug dealers the death penalty, and how his staff and colleagues sort of supported him in that, using guarded language. But, the reality behind that was that the law does not allow the death penalty for drug dealers who do not kill anyone. 

Education policies are also something that interest me greatly. When I started college I was an education major, and a big reason why I left that major was because I couldn’t stand the laws and government influence in the system. I decided I would much rather help people on an individual level than have to deal with common core and school budget cuts. I have seen recently in the news and on Facebook a lot about teachers with run down classrooms that are falling apart. These teachers complain that they do not have supply budgets and have to spend their own money on copy paper in order to print off worksheets for their students. Teachers believe they shouldn’t have to worry about their budget crisis and should be focused on their students, and I have to agree. I think it is interesting and frustrating how we discuss in class how much of the United States budget is spent on the military. Even a small fraction of that budget would significantly help the education system in the United States. I am hoping that after all this uproar on social media, we start to see some better education policies written. 

Yes, state and federal budgets are moral documents. They represents what we think is important.  It’s true that state taxes such as sales and property taxes don’t fund the military, and none of the payroll taxes fund the military, but when it comes to the Federal Income Tax, about half of that is going to national defense, or, if you prefer the term Karl Marx used: “The Human Slaughter Industry.”  Obviously we need some national defense spending and we need some persons to serve in the armed forces, and there are many noble and good persons in the military, but it is discouraging to read about American rockets and bombs killing innocent people in Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, and so forth, and likewise disheartening to read about the huge profits made by companies that produce and sell such weapons and encourage their use, or sell over-priced and low-quality equipment and material to the armed forces; meanwhile, as you point out, we have not invested adequately in schools.  And, the media and our pervasive paranoid culture remain fascinated with “welfare cheats” and people who “abuse the system” by getting a few hundred dollars per month of food or rent subsidies that someone begrudges them.  Meanwhile, we give contracts to timber and mining and ranching interests to pay the public mere pennies on the dollar for the resources they take from our commons (public land); we continue to subsidize unsustainable and unethical industrial farming, destructive fossil fuel consumption, and the prison-security industrial complex.  Yet in the testimony about investing a few hundred thousand dollars to help young adults who have aged out of foster care to go to four-year colleges, many state representatives apologized (apparently sincerely) that there was “no money left” [sic] to fund such extravagances. 

Humans brutalized by the system that squeezes them into conformist roles in making other people wealthy while supporting a parasitic leisure class of “creators” whose main contribution to society is raiding companies and stripping them of value and putting their workers into unemployment are shielded from the truth, and their wounds and disappointments and stresses make some of them susceptible to sadistic fantasies of “killing the brutes” (whether fantasizing about running your car over a Black Lives Matters protestor or actually committing genocide against plantation workers in the Belgian Congo, Europeans and European-Americans have an enduring ability to turn their own pain into the infliction of misery on others). The imagined spectacle of executions of drug dealers, or the heartless deportation of Americans who happened to be born abroad and arrive here as small children, or the the imposition of long prison sentences on poor persons who commit petty crimes (20 years incarceration a potential sentence for trafficking your SNAP benefits)—these are the fantasies of a people who are corrupted by an immoral system of exploitation and false competitive struggle. The work of our profession to change the culture and change the debate and encourage new priorities and more effective solutions to social problems is daunting but absolutely necessary. 

The struggle to get people to see how immoral and inefficient and wasteful our current priorities and policies are is one that can be so challenging that we can get discouraged. But, it is not a hopeless struggle, and sometimes there are successes.

[The “killing the brutes” phrase is a reference to Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness, in which the insane Kurtz adds the phrase “exterminate all the brutes” to a report he has submitted to a group intent on the suppression of savage customs.  And, if you read Adam Hochschild’s King Leopold’s Ghost you will know that the Belgian administration in the Congo did kill millions of Africans, just as the fictional Kurtz recommended. My point is that people go mad in extreme conditions, and it is madness to fantasize about killing nonviolent protestors, just as it is madness to tolerate policies that kill innocent people, like a health care system that lets people die if they don’t have the money to pay for life-saving medicines or procedures that society could easily afford to provide, or a “defense” system that routinely kills innocent people thousands of miles away from us who are minding their own business and have no animosity toward us until our bombs (or the bombs of our so-called “friends”) smash up their homes and break the bodies of their friends and family.]

A student’s editorial in favor of Senate Bill 100 to end the School to Prison Pipeline in Illinois

Senate Bill 100

I have a friend was was a teacher in an alternative school in Peoria; she has since moved on.  She commented to me how kids coming to her school were so damaged and in a sense, many kids are just thrown away for different reasons.  She said it is so sad; the kids just need a chance to learn. They need that attention that they are not getting at home.  So, they act out and end up there, in her class.   

High schools have jumped on the bandwagon of zero tolerance when disciplining students; that way they don't disrupt the "good" kids.  The chance of African American kids being suspended or expelled is much higher. During the 2012-2013 school years, Chicago Schools suspended 32 of every 100 black students, compared to just 5 of every 100 white students.  These kids are then funneled through alternative schools, juvenile justice systems, then finally prison. This has got to stop!  This is known as the School to Prison Pipeline. 

Senate Bill 100 would eliminate the zero tolerance suspension and expulsion rules that are already set in place by the majority of schools.  Senate Bill 100 requires all public funded schools to only suspend and expel students as a last resort when coming across student discipline issues.  Therefore, requiring all schools to exhaust all means of intervention before expelling or suspending for more than three days.  The bill also prohibits fines and fees for misbehavior, and required schools to communicate with parents about why certain disciplinary measures are being used.  

Teaching is not easy; we do expect a lot of our teachers and very little from parents.  It is ridiculous to think that we have lost common sense when disciplining kids today. Why would bringing nail clippers or a wearing a  hair style that is distracting merit a high school student to be suspended? Or why do high schools feel the need the  bring in outside law enforcement to handle trivial issues?   The student now has a record before they are even out of high school!  This bill is long time coming and very much needed.  The cost of Senate Bill 100 in the short term, would be the cost of extra tutors, more qualified teachers, and special education services.  The long significant savings  of this bill, would amount to hundreds of millions when these kids do not end up in our judicial systems.


A key point in the justice argument is that the misbehavior of African-American students is neither quantitatively nor qualitatively worse than the behavior of other children (after adjusting for material deprivation and a few other things that contribute to negative behavior), and yet, when we control for those factors that explain negative behavior including income, the higher rate of discipline remains spectacularly high.  A counter argument you can anticipate is that "African-American students behave more badly more often, and that is why they are suspended and expelled more often" and you can anticipate that point and address it by showing the disparities in expulsion and suspension in Illinois schools was not in line with the differences in disciplinary problems.   

Free lunches in schools for many American children.

Here is a student reaction paper about the child nutrition program that provides free or reduced price lunches at many American schools:

National School Lunch Program, or NSLP, helps children from poor families receive a good lunch at school every day. The school district will give these children a free or price reduced lunch.  Reduced priced lunches do not cost more than 40¢. In order for families to get their kids a free or price reduced lunch, they have to submit an application to the school district. The application can be sent home with the child at the beginning of the school year. However, the start of school is not the only time that a family can apply. They can apply at any point in the school year. They just have to request the application. Also, if a family is receiving SNAP, TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families), and FDPIR (Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations), their children are automatically able to receive these special lunches. The children that receive this can get these special priced lunches as soon as they start school in kindergarten or first grade until they graduate from high school. 

This program helps quite a few families who might not be able to afford to give their kids lunch money every day. There are children who go to school everyday and have never eaten a school lunch. For example, in my high school, if we did not have lunch money, they would give us a cheese sandwich and a carton of white milk. Looking around the lunch room, there were several kids who almost never ate lunch because they could not afford to put money in their account and they did not want milk and a cheese sandwich. The teachers in the lunch room did nothing to make sure that every kid ate that day. The application procedure for this program seems pretty lengthy. However, this would help the school decide whether these families actually need it (“need” is simply determined by the children’s household income). The families who do not need this program and falsely claim low incomes so their children quality for it take away the opportunity for other families to give their children a proper lunch. If a family is already receiving SNAP, TANF, or FDPIR, then it is obvious that these families need more help than most families who are not receiving benefits from these programs. For the families receiving benefits through these programs, their children will receive free school lunches.

If anyone wants to know more about the NSLP, there is some recent (FY 2015 estimates) information available at schoolnutrition.org.

Restorative Justice programs in schools

A student recommends restorative justice programs in schools. 

Effective policies targeting students’ deviant behavior are desperately sought after in response to increasingly high numbers of suspension and expulsion within schools across the United States. Students attending school naturally come from a widely diverse home environment and unfortunately, many students who lack strong emotional support find themselves struggling to establish and maintain healthy relationships within the school system. Usually, it is these kids who engage in bullying behaviors and “stir the pot” so to speak.

The Restorative Justice program is a revolutionary technique which aims at repairing relationships harmed by students who lack the social skills necessary to successfully handle conflict. This program provides a safe environment within a school system allowing the instigator and the victim(s) to talk through the situation with other support personnel present. Typically, if a school fight has ensued between students, affected students will be afforded the opportunity to meet in a “restorative” circle format and the student who may have provoked the incident will hear how his/her actions affected the other involved individuals. Additionally, the student who provoked the situation will be given the chance to explain their perspective of things and hopefully, verbalize factors that may be contributing to their aggressive behavior; this is when additional services may be provided to the student who find themselves in frequent conflict with others. Normally, the automatic response to students expressing violent behavior is an automatic suspension or expulsion from school. This response is often counter-productive because:
(a) the student is then banned from attending school for specific amount of time, which in turn poses a problem for their working parents;
(b) the student is missing out on school work;
(c) simple suspensions or expulsions do not target the problem behavior and simply act as a ‘punishment’.
One particular school in Oakland, CA has seen a reduction in suspension/expulsions by over 50% since implementing the Restorative Justice program; this is an extremely reassuring statistic indicating the program is successful.

Recently, our own district in Chillicothe, IL has adopted this program, and I am excited to see how it affects students within the district. My own daughter who was in 6^th grade last year was subjected to several incidents involving a group of girls who didn’t necessarily “bully” her, but were verbally cruel at times and disrespectful to authoritative figures within the school. After meeting with my daughter's teacher, she admitted to not really feeling like she had much control over the situation because talking to these particular girls parents’ did not appear to do any good; she choose to just ignore the situation and allow my daughter to be miserable at school. This prompted action on my part with the principal and after significant research, I suggested this Restorative Justice program be implemented, to which he responded he had already began looking into it; fast forward to this school year: we now have the program!

If we hope to improve the fabric of our society, the vital areas begin at home—this is most challenging to address—and within the school where school administrators really do have so much more behavior modifying opportunities at their fingertips than they probably realize. I would love to see policies enacted that could involve parents more with the school and even offer parental support groups sponsored by the districts. Problem with that sort of program is funding; Illinois is broke and funds simply aren’t there.

The Restorative Justice program is an effective problem solving technique proving its success throughout several locations across the United States and is continuing to gain popularity. This program provides a strong framework that fosters problem solving skills along with effective techniques to improve social skills. 

There was a good article in The Atlantic late last year about this. I understand that the Springfield School District 186 is also trying to use some of these restorative justice techniques in the schools. One of the race unity groups in town was advocating for this, and I believe some reporting by Dusty Rhodes helped create the public support for it.  It’s a good topic, and it relates to many issues in social work. 

You make some important points I’ll repeat here:

1. people in schools do not always recognize how they could adopt practices that would (or at least, might) powerfully influence the students in their schools.  People from outside the schools can give support and encouragement, or work with school administrators and school boards to make everyone aware of potential programs that might make a difference.
2. the technology of “Restorative Justice programs” seem to reduce the behaviors that lead to expulsions or suspensions.  The program seems to target the skill of empathy, helping students feel more compassion for others, while also building social relationships.  It works partly on peer pressure. 
3. Many students who harm other students at school have serious issues in their home life, and rather than addressing the problems at home or in school, it seems easier to just suspend or expel those students, which is a way of “throwing them away” or letting them take responsibility for their own action.  However, if we put more effort into programs to deal with their emotional problems and help them build empathy and social connection, we may be able to help them, thus rehabilitating them and making the school and classroom climate healthier for everyone. Schools need resources (staff with expertise and time to conduct the programs, and the money to train and pay them) to do this.  All that we need is the political will to allocate resources to this sort of intervention and the administrative skill to see that the practices that work best are actually implemented. 

.  

Ending reliance on Suspension and Expulsion in Illinois Schools with Senate Bill 100

        Reaction Paper about law to end zero tolerance tendencies to suspend or expel students.

In August of 2015, Bill SB 100 was been passed into legislation by the Illinois General Assembly and signed into law by Governor Rauner. Senate Bill 100 was created by the group; Voices of Youth in Chicago due to their concern for children who were not receiving instructional time because of suspensions or expulsions. This new law will require schools to adjust their forms of discipline. They are now required to exhaust every possible form of disciplinary action before expulsion, suspension, or referral to alternative school will be allowed. This was an effort to keep children in school and to minimize the amount of instruction time lost due to suspensions and expulsions by decreasing the usage of those forms of punishment (NCTV, 2016). 

I fully support this bill because suspensions and expulsions seem to be more problematic rather than a solution. They cause children to lose instruction time and fall behind in classwork, which is not beneficial to either the instructors or student. Students may also be getting sent home to unhealthy situations. The root of the problem may be within their household and sending them back there may make it worse. If the disruptive student may be acting out due to bad situations at home, then the school ought to provide a safer and healthier environment where the student can learn and get away from family troubles. 

A site maintained by the Voices of Youth in Chicago mentions the idea of suspension and expulsion being the cause of “pushing students out of the school system and into the juvenile” (Voyce,2014). I agree with this because suspensions can lead to students falling behind and dropping out of school and getting into illegal activity. With this law, schools are required to allow students to make up work that they have missed if they are suspended. 

Bill 100 will hopefully keep students in school and therefore better their chances at a good future. 

Source: http://www.nctv17.com/district-204-and-senate-bill-100/

http://voyceproject.org/campaigns/campaign-common-sense-discipline/sb100/ 

 

It's just a reaction essay, so I guess it's okay that you didn't explore while people might oppose this law, or why the policies of suspensions and expulsions became so widespread and common.  It seems to me that this law requires a complimentary law that helps (and funds) school attempts to make classrooms safe and supportive. I suppose schools will use special classrooms or study rooms and tutoring to deal with discipline problems that have until recently been addressed with suspensions and expulsions.  I suppose when it comes to actual fighting or threats, schools could always just call in police and encourage students and teachers to press criminal charges for assault and intimidation, and let the courts deal with the worst discipline problems.

You didn't put this paper in the context of the general criticism of "zero tolerance" as part of a "school-to-prison pipeline". We know (and we have known for about 25 years) how to identify young children who will be most likely to have discipline problems or end up in juvenile justice detention, and we also know how to provide supports to such children in their schools in ways that drastically reduce their chances of ending up in serious trouble (and causing serious problems for others).  And yet, there has been more political will for locking up people than for doing preventive interventions to reduce behavior problems in schools. 

Does the law provide any extra financing to help schools do preventive work or offer services to help students with behavior problems?

You did not mention that the people who pushed this bill were actual students from Chicago.  This new law is exciting because it came from people who were very young, and in some cases too young even to vote.

School Lunch Program Deserves Support

This is an editorial written by a student.

The commercials on television play slow sad music and show depressing pictures of young children to depict the suffering they are going through because they are hungry.

Often times when I see these commercials I let it play or switch the channel because I did not care to see the problems in America.

After studying the issue of hunger in America more in depth in my classes I have a whole new perspective on the issue.  I now believe that it is a human right to have the means to satisfy their hunger.

There is not one reason that a person should not be given the opportunity to eat, yet according to statistics we have discussed in class, about 1.14% of households will not eat on a given day. As human beings, I think we should have the duty of making sure people are given food to satisfy their need.

Certain programs are put in place to try and ease the suffering these people are going through. One of these programs is SNAP or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. This is set by the government to help families that do not have the ability to pay for food, to purchase food necessary. According to the lessons we discussed during our class, during any given month, around forty million people in the United States, participate in the SNAP program. I think that if the government would pay more attention to the families that apply for SNAP, they would be able to prevent the families from going hungry in the first place. If they did more research on what different problems the families are facing, I feel their situations would be helped and they could be directed in a better way of living.

Another program that the government has put in place is Free and Reduced Lunches for children and teenagers attending school.

This program is a federally assisted meal program that helps families who otherwise could not pay for their children’s food at school.

According to the USDA, the budget for these school meals is $87 billion dollars. Though this seems like a lot of money, to me, I do not feel that this is an adequate amount given the amount of people who go without food in this country.

Knowing that millions of people suffer from food insecurity and very low food insecurity, I feel that the next step it so make more people more aware.

If everyone in America knew the numbers of people who are suffering and could actually see the faces of these people, I feel a big change would come. If people would donate more of their time to help people in need, then maybe, just maybe, less people will go hungry. I know that I now want to do my part, even if it means just donating canned food to a food drive, I want to help people to the best of my ability.

Resources

"National School Lunch Program." Web. 03 May 2012. .

No Kid Hungry Campaign

Here is a student essay describing a policy or program. 

On March 14, 2012, Governor Patrick Quinn announced a new partnership in efforts to end childhood hunger in Illinois. A 2011 report from Feeding America found that more than 745,000 children in Illinois are at risk of hunger. Families are struggling to put food on the tables and provide nutritious meals. The organizations, Share Our Strength and Illinois Commission to End Hunger gathered at Parker Elementary Community Academy in Chicago to announce the Commission’s report and start off the Illinois No Kid Hungry campaign. The campaign will work to help teach more families about federally funded programs to help assist in hunger needs such as; school breakfasts and summer meals which provide children with a healthy start they need. They will also help families learn how to cook healthy yet affordable meals for their families. Share Our Strength and the Greater Chicago Food Depository have joined together to begin the Illinois No Kid Hungry Campaign. With the help of their sponsors; Jimmy Dean, Walmart, Arby’s Foundation, and supporter- Weight Watchers, Illinois will soon be looking at a shrinking number of children who are hungry.

Any school that is a public school, nonprofit private school, or a residential child care institution can choose to take part in the School Breakfast Program. More than 770,000 students are eligible for the free or reduced breakfasts and lunches at school, yet less than one half of the students are participating in this program. This means children are coming to school hungry because there is not enough food to eat at home. Hungry children are less likely to perform to their highest potential in the classrooms. Also, less than 15% of the children who are eligible for the summer meals receive them. Illinois is actually in the top five states that have actually lost federal funding due to low participation rates for these services. The young children of our communities need good nutritious meals in order to grow physically and keep up with their academics to their full potential. Through the help from Share Our Strength, children who are in need will be enrolled in federal nutrition programs and families will be taught how to cook healthy and affordable meals. The families will learn how to select nutritious, yet low-cost ingredients and prepare meals in ways to ensure the best nourishment for their family.

 With the help from Illinois Commission to End Hunger and No Kid Hungry students and their families will be better aware of the programs available. With the generous help from numerous not-for-profit programs, the people of Illinois can receive help without using any state money or without raising taxes. This is a big relief that the state is not going further into debt with this Commission to End Hunger program. Share Our Strength and No Kid Hungry campaigns in 16 other states besides Illinois. These states include Maryland and Colorado, where it has been an incredible success. In Maryland, this campaign has helped to increase the number of children eating summer meals by 7.5%. In Colorado, has increased the participation in school breakfast program by 430,000 more meals served. It looks like Illinois is on the same road to success as these other states are to end hunger for the children.

Recognizing Mental Health Symptoms in Adolescents

This is a letter a student wrote to a state representative about a bill that would dictate to school districts that they must have a certain type of in-service training for teachers, counselors, and social workers:

I am writing to you in regards to HB4495. I think that it is very important that school guidance counselors, teachers, school social workers, and any other school employee who works with students in grades 7 through 12 should be trained to identify the warning signs of mental illness and suicidal behavior.

I have been a Springfield citizen for 22 years now and I believe this bill has been a long time need for our society. Children spend most of their time at school, and their teachers see more of them than their own parents do. Teachers and other school personnel should have been trained to recognize these symptoms outlined in HB4495 a long time ago. I believe this bill could help prevent a lot of suffering and make a big difference in the number of teen suicides. Before HB4495, these employees were only trained to identify the warning signs of suicidal behavior. With this in-service training on the basic factors of mental illness outlined in HB4495; the counselors, teachers, and other school employees will now be able to recognize the symptoms of mental illness and know how to approach situations.

Many people who develop mental illness show symptoms by the time they are 14, that is why I believe HB4495 has a very good focal age group. Not only are these school personnel being trained to recognize the warning signs of mental illness and suicidal behavior, they are also being taught the appropriate intervention and referral techniques to handle situations. Knowing what resources are available will be key to success. According to HB4495, at least once every two years an in-service training program for school personnel will be held. It is important to keep the training up-to-date with the changing resources available. I believe the in-service training should be held once every year at the beginning of the school year. With the help of HB4495, school personnel will be better able to communicate with youth victims of domestic or sexual violence, and refer them to agencies or programs.

I believe with bills like HB4495, there would be a less likely chance of a school shooting happening. It seems like at least every month there is some school shooting or a threat. When the story comes out, we always talk about the warning signs the classmates saw, but now with this in-service training teachers and school personnel will hopefully see those warning signs as well. This bill could also help the suicide rate from bullying go down as well. I think that it would be a wise decision if other states adopted this bill. All schools should have guidance counselors, teachers, school social workers, and any other school employee who works with students in grades 7 through 12 trained to identify the warning signs of mental illness and suicidal behavior.

I do have one concern though, how will this in-service training be funded and how much would it cost? Although I believe this bill is necessary, it is also necessary to keep in mind the struggling economy.