Advance Illinois Applauds Illinois Legislative Black Caucus Victory Elevating Whole Child Needs for Safer, More Supportive Schools
Contact: Bravetta Hassell
bhassell@advanceillinois.org
CHICAGO, August 3, 2023—Advance Illinois celebrates today’s signing of HB342 into law, helping ensure every Illinois public school district will have the tools needed to more holistically serve students.
“We applaud Senator Kimberly Lightford and Representative Carol Ammons for leading the effort to deepen how Illinois systemically supports and prioritizes our students’ well-being,” said Robin Steans President of bipartisan education policy advocacy nonprofit Advance Illinois.
The new law comes just a year after a special task force’s release of recommendations on how Illinois could create a healing-centered K-12 education system. The final report included roughly 30 recommendations and HB342 takes a step forward, placing some of them into law including the adoption of shared definitions of trauma and trauma-responsive schools and districts, creation of an adversity index to provide a window into the level of trauma present in Illinois’ communities and school districts, public reporting of data on the number of school and district level counselors, nurses, and social workers, and the development of recommendations to update Illinois’ preparation and training expectations for teachers and teacher candidates around trauma-informed practices.
In 2021, the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus made the “whole child” a priority as it successfully advanced reforms in education, economic access, criminal justice, and health. As part of their education omnibus bill, the ILBC passed legislation that created a Whole Child Task Force of mental experts, parents, teachers, administrators, state agencies, and advocates to explore a sustainable system for better supporting student well-being at a time when Child Trends estimated that 40% of Illinois youth had been exposed to at least one adverse childhood experience, or ACE, with the exposure of Black and Latinx students and students from low-income households to ACEs even more severe.
“Creating a path to put more and appropriate resources and capacity in the place where our young people spend most of their time just makes sense,” said Steans. “This being even more the case when we consider the far reaching and also uneven effects COVID-19 has had on young people—much of which we are only beginning to understand.”
Decades of research has long cited the impact that childhood trauma has on children’s ability to be successful in school and in life over the long-term. Until this point, however, what mental health, social-emotional and trauma-informed services and resources have been provided in the state’s public school districts have been idiosyncratic—well-supported in some districts and inadequate in others due to lack of support.
"I strongly believe the approach has the potential to make Illinois a national leader in advancing equitable, strength-based, and culturally-attuned trauma responsive and healing centered services," Lightford told the Illinois Senate Education Committee in March.
The signing of HB342 into law complements and aligns with other state initiatives to support the whole child, including the Governor’s Children's Behavioral Health Transformation Initiative, State Board of Education supported, The Resilience Education to Advance Community Healing (REACH) Statewide Initiative , SEL Hubs, and Community Partnership Grants.
“While there is still much work to be done, these are important foundational pieces to ensure that Illinois is equipped to respond and support the needs of all our students and youth,” Steans said.
###
About Advance Illinois
Advance Illinois is an independent policy and advocacy organization working toward a healthy public education system that enables all students to achieve success in college, career, and civic life. Since its founding in 2008, Advance Illinois has become a nationally recognized thought leader in education, policy, and advocacy.