Attorney General Kwame Raoul, along with Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) Superintendent of Education Dr. Carmen I. Ayala, announced the state’s first guidance for school districts to ensure that disciplinary policies do not violate civil rights laws. The guidance is aimed in part at addressing the connection between exclusionary school discipline practices and increased rates of incarceration, often referred to as the school-to-prison pipeline. Illinois law requires school boards and the governing bodies of charter schools to conduct annual reviews of discipline policies and their implementation. Raoul and ISBE are encouraging school boards to review disparities in discipline data and eliminate policies and practices associated with having a race-based disparate impact. During the 2019-2020 school year, 45 percent of students expelled from Illinois public schools were Black, despite comprising less than 17 percent of the state’s student population. The Attorney General’s Civil Rights Bureau enforces state and federal civil rights laws prohibiting discrimination. Attorney General Raoul urges students or parents who experience or witness discriminatory school discipline practices or policies to contact his office’s Civil Rights Bureau by emailing civilrights@ilag.gov or by calling his Civil Rights Hotline at 1-877-581-3692, or to contact the ISBE Student Care Department by emailing studentcare@isbe.net.