Haga picks another win
(Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)
Photo of the Day: January 19, 2021
Guest Commentary: We must live our lives right now
by Glenn Mollette, Guest Commentator
When did life begin for President Donald Trump or President Joe Biden? Did Trump's life begin when his father loaned him millions to start investing? Did it begin when he married Melania? Or, did life begin when he was elected President? Maybe his life is beginning now that his Presidency is over?
What about Biden? Did Biden's life begin each morning when he boarded Amtrak headed for Washington? Maybe his life began when he was elected a Senator or even the Vice President? Maybe his life is just beginning now?
Trump will have options after the White House. He is a businessman. He will figure it out.
Maybe NBC will seek him to do The Celebrity Apprentice once again? Yes, NBC hates him but they love money. The Celebrity Apprentice made NBC and Trump hundreds of millions of dollars. Someone will publish Trump's memoirs. I predict he'll make about 50 to 75 million dollars off his book royalties. He has over 70 million loyal followers. If ten million people buy a book with a $6 to $9 profit for the publisher then you can start multiplying the cash. Book publishers are all about money and sales. They know the market potential. Trump will stay busy on the speaking circuit. In about a year look for him in a city near you drawing a crowd.
Biden's life is only changing in that he finally gets to sleep in the White House. He will be in the same place where so many politicians and families have slept before. Biden is familiar with the nation's Capitol. He has practically spent his entire life there in politics. It's what he has awakened to almost every morning of his life. Although now, he will sit in the Oval Office.
Life is changing for these two men in different ways but what about your life? When did your life begin? Did it begin at your conception? Your birth? When you turned 16 years old or 21? Maybe it began when you retired? When will your life end? The beginning of your life starts when you start living your life. The end of your life concludes when you give up and stop living your life.
Our lives are brief, here today and gone tomorrow. Don't base your life on who is The President. The quantity and quality of our lives typically hinge on our decisions and the transitions we adjust to. Life is filled with transitions, just look at Biden and Trump.
Change disrupts us and the climate of fear and skepticism is dominating our nation.
For you and I we must live our lives right now. Every day we wake up is a new beginning and a new life. The old life was yesterday and we can't relive, change or erase it. However, we can learn from yesterday and education is very valuable.
When someone else's life begins is all conjecture on our part. When your life begins is your daily decision. Live your life. Maybe at this moment, your life is just really beginning
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When did life begin for President Donald Trump or President Joe Biden? Did Trump's life begin when his father loaned him millions to start investing? Did it begin when he married Melania? Or, did life begin when he was elected President? Maybe his life is beginning now that his Presidency is over?
What about Biden? Did Biden's life begin each morning when he boarded Amtrak headed for Washington? Maybe his life began when he was elected a Senator or even the Vice President? Maybe his life is just beginning now?
Trump will have options after the White House. He is a businessman. He will figure it out.
"Someone will publish Trump's memoirs. I predict he'll make about 50 to 75 million dollars off his book royalties."
Dr. Glenn Mollette is a syndicated American columnist and author of American Issues, Every American Has An Opinion and ten other books. He is read in all 50 states. The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily representative of any other group or organization.
This article is the sole opinions of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of The Sentinel. We welcome comments and views from our readers.
St. Joseph Middle School Honor Roll
Seventy-three 8th grade students at St. Joseph Middle School displayed their academic ability in the classroom by earning a spot on this school year's second quarter honor roll. Click on the image to review the list for each grade.
Seventh Grade Honor Roll
Eighth Grade Honor Roll
Tier 1 is back, restaurants can return to partial indoor dining
The restaurant business in Champaign County will be booming this week.
With a big sigh of relief, Region 6 of the Illinois Department of Public Health's COVID-19 Resurgence Mitigation Plan - which includes Champaign, Clark, Clay, Coles, Crawford, Cumberland, Dewitt, Douglas, Edgar, Effingham, Fayette, Ford, Iroquois, Jasper, Lawrence, Macon, Moultrie, Piatt, Richland, Shelby and Vermilion counties - moved from Tier 3 to Tier 1 yesterday. Restaurants can now return to partial, limited indoor seating.
And it is a moment too late for a number of area restaurants that have permanently closed their doors. However, it means that establishments like Roch's, which made the decision this past weekend, and Rich's Family Restaurant in Ogden more than a week earlier, to completely shutdown operations temporarily to conserve dwindling assets can now open to start generating revenue once again.
"We are back open! Tier one is official," said a post on Billy Bob's Facebook business page on Monday, a little more than a week after settling a dispute with the Champaign County public health agency suspended that suspended their health on December 11. The non-compliance with the state's mandate led to a court ordered temporary restraining order.
Monical's in Tolono announced on Facebook they would reopen today at 11am.
"We will follow the guidelines for Tier 1 mitigations which will include 25% seating capacity. Masks will also be required to enter the store and when you get up from your table," the post stated. "We are so excited to see our guests back in our store."
They are kicking off their reopening with a special featuring a 16" one topping pizza for $12.
Here's are the less restrictive measures now in effect for Region 6:
All bars and restaurants close at 11pm and may reopen no earlier than 6am the
following day
• Indoor service limited to the lesser of 25 guests or 25% capacity per room
• Establishments offering indoor service must serve food
• Indoor service reservations limited to 2-hour maximum duration and maximum
4 persons per party (dining only with members of the same household
recommended)
• All bar and restaurant patrons should be seated at tables
• No ordering, seating, or congregating at bar (bar stools should be removed)
• Tables should be 6 feet apart
• No standing or congregating indoors or outdoors while waiting for a table or exiting
• No dancing or standing indoors
• Reservations required for each party
• No seating of multiple parties at one table
• Includes private clubs and country clubs
A new round of COVID-19 vaccinations starting January 19
Champaign County residents 75 years of age or older that did not previously receive a vaccine and people age 65-74 with underlying health conditions can receive a free coronavirus vaccination at an upcoming clinic between January 19 and January 22. The vaccine will be administered by appointment only.
Residents can schedule their time online at https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b054ca8a82ca5f94-vaccine or call (217) 239-7877. According to the news release below, "individuals may experience a longer wait time" for appointments by phone.
Full release:
Full release:
The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District (CUPHD), in partnership with Carle Health, OSF HealthCare, Christie Clinic, Promise Healthcare, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will be hosting additional community-based COVID-19 vaccination clinics for Champaign County residents. The upcoming clinics will be held January 19-22, 2021 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. by appointment only.
Next week’s clinics will serve anyone 75 years of age or older that did not previously receive a vaccine plus is expanding to include individuals age 65-74 with underlying health conditions - cancer, chronic kidney disease, COPD, heart disease, obesity, sickle cell disease, diabetes, smoking, and immune-compromised due to organ transplant.
Written documentation from the individual’s Primary Care Physician will not be required.
The community clinic will be held at the iHotel and Conference Center located at 1900 S. 1st Street, Champaign.
To register, please use one of the following methods:
Preferred method is online at https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b054ca8a82ca5f94-vaccine.
Scheduling is also available by calling (217) 239-7877 but individuals may experience a longer wait time.
Entrance for the clinic is through the east wing of the iHotel and Conference Center.
If you do not feel well the day of your appointment, please call to reschedule.
Special notes:
The Kohl’s Plaza vaccination site administered by Carle Health is full for the weeks of January 18th and 25th and is currently not accepting additional appointments. Those eligible will be contacted when additional clinic dates become available.
Please refrain from contacting your healthcare provider to be placed on a wait list if you do not meet the requirements for the current phase.
“We are very excited as we move through this last phase of the pandemic. Vaccine distribution is rapidly changing so we ask everyone to please be patient as we are able to provide clinics and help our community return to normal. We will announce vaccination availability as quickly as possible so continue to watch CUPHD’s website and social media pages for updates,” said Public Health Administrator, Julie Pryde.
Patients will need to wear a face covering, practice social distancing, and plan to allow at least 15 minutes for observation after the vaccination. Please limit the number of individuals in your party that are not receiving the vaccine and wear clothing to allow easy access to the upper portion of the arm for the injection.
The cost of the vaccine is currently being covered by the federal government and most insurance plans cover the cost to deliver the shot. If you have questions about what your personal coverage is, call your health plan provider at the number on the back of your insurance card. It is important to know that no one will be turned away or receive a charge if they do not have health insurance.
The Illinois Department of Public Health has compiled a comprehensive list of frequently asked questions about the COVID-19 vaccination. Information can be found at: http://dph.illinois.gov/covid19/vaccine-faq.
To track the phases and local vaccinations, visit https://www.c-uphd.org/covid-vaccinations.html.
There were 44 COVID-19 outbreaks in Illinois schools
Jennifer Smith Richards, Chicago Tribune
Jodi S. Cohen, ProPublica
Nearly two months into the school year, Illinois public health officials said they have verified COVID-19 outbreaks in at least 44 school buildings across the state, but they declined to say where those cases occurred and acknowledged they may not know the full scope of the virus’s spread in schools.
Many other states already publish data on outbreaks in schools. But Illinois so far has released only county-level data about COVID-19 cases in people younger than 20.
Unlike many other states, Illinois doesn’t publish the number of cases linked to schools or which schools have been affected — even as parents and educators try to assess whether in-person learning is safe. State health officials released overall numbers at the request of ProPublica Illinois and the Chicago Tribune.
With more than 1,800 public schools operating in person at least part time, along with an unknown number of private schools, the outbreaks represent a tiny fraction of Illinois schools in session, according to an analysis of state education data. Most outbreaks have been small — two or three cases at each school — but at least 105 students and 73 employees at public and private schools have been affected.
State health officials said many COVID-19 cases seen among children are tied to gatherings outside school and other community events, while acknowledging that local contact tracing efforts likely have missed some school-related cases.
In all, 8,668 Illinois children ages 5 to 17 have tested positive for the virus from Aug. 15, when schools started to reopen, to Oct. 2, state health officials said. That amounts to about 180 new infections among children each day, on average, since school returned. Between March and early August, there were 11,953 confirmed COVID-19 cases among children, an average of about 72 a day. Fewer than five school-aged children have died of the disease, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Even as parents, school leaders and others in the state have pushed for more transparency about cases related to schools, the state health department said this week that it continues to weigh whether to publish data on school-driven outbreaks and has no timeline to decide whether to do so.
IDPH spokeswoman Melaney Arnold said health officials are concerned that publishing COVID-19 data tied to schools could identify students and staff and violate their privacy. The department publishes case counts for other facilities, including nursing homes and psychiatric hospitals. It also specifies the number of cases in people younger than 20 in each county.
“Obviously we want to be as transparent as possible and get information out that people can use. That’s why we have on our website the county-level data. That way, counties can make their own decisions about what they want to do,” Arnold said. “We’ve certainly received a lot of interest in this data. We’ve received interest from many different groups.”
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker was asked at a news briefing Wednesday whether the state will publish data about school-related infections. He did not commit to it.
“I’m sure that IDPH is looking at school-specific reporting,” Pritzker said. “I’m very much in favor of trying to get our kids back into in-person learning; however, we want to make sure that it’s safe. And it’s very difficult at the state level to dictate how each school — of the 4,000-plus schools that we’ve got across the state of Illinois — can do that.”
Other states make district- or school-level outbreak data public online, including Ohio, Indiana and Mississippi, which post data about public and private schools; Michigan and Tennessee, which list new and ongoing outbreaks; and Kentucky, which provides student and staff case numbers “out of transparency and as quickly as possible,” according to the state website with school data.
A school outbreak is defined as two or more confirmed cases within 14 days of the start of symptoms in people who do not share a household and did not have close contact in another setting.
Nearly two-thirds of the confirmed school outbreaks resulted in two or three infections, and about a third led to between four and nine cases. One school had an outbreak that affected 18 people.
Health department officials are also tracing current school outbreaks in which the total number of infected people isn’t yet known, said Dr. Connie Austin, an infectious disease epidemiologist with the IDPH. Austin said the department is reluctant to estimate the risk of attending school — each community is different — but emphasized that students and staff should wear masks and keep socially distant when together.
“We need a little more time to be able to evaluate these outbreaks,” Austin said. “It is certainly happening; that’s why schools need to take the precautions they can take.”
In Illinois, students and staff at about 25% of school districts are operating exclusively in person, and nearly 70% are spending at least some of the week in person. A total of about 685,000 students attend school in these districts. Some of the state’s largest school districts — including Chicago and U-46 in Elgin — are operating entirely remotely for now.
Many school districts gave parents a choice between in-person classes and e-learning but allow them to switch only during school breaks, including at the end of a grading period. For both parents and school officials, it would be helpful to know more about virus transmissions at schools, one parent advocate said.
“Parents are in the dark about infection rates. How can we make an informed decision about whether or not to send our kids back to school when we don’t know how it is actually going at the schools that have returned to in-person school?” said Mary Fahey Hughes, a parent liaison for Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education, a parent group that advocates for public education.
Michigan provides weekly updates on outbreaks in schools throughout the state, and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration recently ordered schools to notify the public within 24 hours of any confirmed student and staff coronavirus cases. The push for transparency came from the Michigan Association of Superintendents & Administrators, among other groups, after inconsistent reporting by schools.
“The only way to get through the pandemic is using transparency,” said Peter Spadafore, deputy executive director of the Michigan superintendents group. By publishing statewide figures, school leaders “can begin to understand what measures were successful in mitigation and stopping outbreaks.”
“When we talk about returning to school in person … we then have a lot of data to understand what works and what doesn’t,” Spadafore said.
Emily Oster, a Brown University economics professor, has been working with school administrators across the country to create a national dashboard to track the virus’s spread. Participation in the dashboard is voluntary; about 115 Illinois schools are included so far, with 0.13% of students testing positive in late September, about the same as the national rate.
“If we don’t have public accountability reporting, people don’t know what is going on. That is making it hard for them to make choices,” Oster said. “There are a lot of states and places that are hiding behind privacy, and the push I keep trying to make to people is it would be good to release this data.”
Nationally, cases among children and teens peaked in July, declined in August and then started rising again in early September, according to a recent report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Infection rates were twice as high in teens as they were in children. The CDC said that in-person learning can be safe when community transmission rates are low, but that it could increase risk in communities where transmission is high.
Illinois data suggests that many cases among teens involve outbreaks at colleges, not at K-12 schools. There were 15,464 confirmed cases among people younger than 20 between Aug. 16 and the last week of September, according to IDPH. But in roughly the same time period, the agency documented only 178 connected to K-12 schools.
Large outbreaks on university campuses in Illinois and across the country have been documented, though, contributing to case spikes in college towns.
For example, cases have surged recently among younger people in McLean County, in central Illinois. But Jessica McKnight, administrator of the county health department, noted that many of those cases were in the 18- and 19-year-old range. Illinois Wesleyan University and Illinois State University have both reopened in the county.
She also said most of the virus spread in K-12 children so far has been tied to community sports and other gatherings unrelated to school.
“We’re making it as safe as possible within the walls of the school,” McKnight said. “You have control over what happens inside the building. It’s outside the building … that may be more concerning.”
School districts have taken varied approaches to informing their communities about COVID-19 cases. While some publish real-time dashboards, others alert parents only with form letters when a positive case is discovered. Some send out periodic updates tallying the week’s cases.
North suburban New Trier Township School District 203 updates an online dashboard twice a week with the number of staff and student COVID-19 cases, as well as the number in quarantine. After starting remotely for all but select students, the high school reopened Monday with 25% of students in person at a time. As of Wednesday, there were five positive cases among students and none among staff, according to the district. Nearly 60 students and 13 employees are in quarantine, according to the dashboard.
Mike Sutton, superintendent of Highland Community Unit School District 5 in Madison County, near St. Louis, doesn’t publish a dashboard but sends families a weekly summary with a tally of the week’s confirmed COVID-19 cases. He said there have been about 25 confirmed or presumed cases in the district since the school year began.
“This has not been ideal, but we believe that’s how important it is to have kids in school,” Sutton said.
In west suburban Geneva District 304, about 5,500 students and staff members have been learning in person since Aug. 31. There have been 26 confirmed COVID-19 cases among students and school workers, though none of the cases is linked to exposure at the schools, according to district spokeswoman Laura Sprague.
“These confirmed cases are from community-based exposure rather than in our schools, which shows the health and safety precautions we put in place are working,” Sprague said.
Students and staff wear masks during the school day; families are required to complete a daily symptom screening and certify that nobody in the family has COVID-19 symptoms. District officials email families and staff whenever they learn of a positive case in the school community, Sprague said.
Olympia District 16 in McLean County publishes its own online dashboard that updates daily.
“Being transparent with numbers, cases, etc., has helped and our staff has been positive about being in person,” said Laura O’Donnell, the district’s superintendent.
County health officials said they reviewed districts’ return-to-school plans and made suggestions when necessary, and they have advised districts what to do when they have had positive cases.
In St. Clair County, in southern Illinois, school officials alert the health department when someone tests positive and they work together to trace exposure. Some school employees have taken the county’s contact tracing course to understand the process, said the health department’s executive director, Barb Hohlt.
The county, like others across the state, does not publish the number of cases tied to schools, Hohlt said.
“We will follow the lead” of the state health department, Hohlt said. “We are leaving it up to each school (to decide what to disclose about) cases in a school. We will inform parents or teachers or employees only if there is a need to know they have been involved in a case or contact.”
Statewide, there have been 307,641 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 8,878 deaths attributed to the virus as of this article.
*** Clarification, Oct. 22, 2020: This story originally said some Chicago Public Schools students will return to classes in November. The district hopes to begin in-person learning for preschool and certain special education students in the second quarter, which begins in November.
This story was originally published by ProPublica on October 21, 2020. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.
Filed under: Education
Photo of the day: January 15, 2021
Photo: PhotoNews/Clark Brooks
A good reason to not leave your kids "Home Alone" in Illinois
by Joe Barnas, Writer
Illinois Policy
Could Illinois parents who leave their eighth grader at home alone, or allow them to be unsupervised at the local park, find themselves under investigation by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, or even under arrest?
A vague and restrictive state law could mean the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services comes knocking if parents leave their 13-year-old home alone.
Joe Barnas is a writer at the Illinois Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research organization that promotes responsible government and free market principles. Originally published December 23, 2020.
Photo of the Day - January 14, 2021
Singing with the Parke
Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks
32 juniors make Unity's first semester high honor roll
Malia Fairbanks, Phillip Hartke and Grace Renfrow are three of 32 members of the junior class who achived a grade point average of 3.75 or better at Unity High after the first semester. Forty-eight students from the class of 2024 will also be recognized as high honors students on January 26 along with the entire list of students below who made the honor roll or attained high honors status from their efforts between August 19 and December 22.
Students earning a GPA of 3.20 to 3.74 are recognized as honor students.
Seniors
High Honor: Emma Aders; Evelyn Atkins; Rachel Branson; Marissa Charleston; Gracie Cox; Brooke Garretson; Shay Haluzak; Maggie Hewing; Elizabeth Hulilck; Taylor Joop, Olivia Kleiss; Madelyn Moore; Korie Novak; Kimberely Pruitting; Daisy Rawlings; Annie Schmidt; Mia Shannon; Lillian Styan; Jonah Sullivan; Cerra Thompson; and Kyleigh Weller. Honor: Caroline Bachert; Alyson Bagwell; Brandon Bates; Isabella Bryant; Corbin Cox; Summer Day; Nathan Drennan; Corrina Duvall; Emma Felsman; Shannon Flavin; Alyssa Hartman; Ellen Henning; William Jokisch; Evan LeFaivre; Emily Lopez; Suzanne Migut; Andrew Miller; Aubryanna Norman; Connor ODonnell; Brady Porter; Chloee Reed; Conner Sharp; Ryan Vasey; Nolan Wallace; Caden Wingler; and Laela Zook.Juniors
High Honor: Katelyn Allen; Marie Baxley; Emma Bleecher; Zayne Bonner; Grace Brock; Sarah Butler; Thomas Cler; Sophia Darnell; Nolan Decker; Allyson England; Malia Fairbanks; Harper Hancock; Cameran Hansen; Phillip Hartke; Elise Johnson; Annabell Jokisch; Delaney Kamradt; Carli Keller; Lauryn Kennedy; Carson Kleparski; Addison Montgomery; Sydney Olson; Kaitlyn Reedy; Grace Renfrow; Samantha Ruggieri; Allison Shonkwiler; Sara Steffens; Erika Steinman; Shelbee Taylor; Isabella Warner; and Destiny Williamson. Honor: Savannah Alagna; Cody Broadfoot; Calli Chandler; Marshall Church; Kystal Crossin; Evelyn Eastin; Hunter Evans; Hailey Flesch; Grace Frye; Tristania Hansen; Bridget Henry; Taylor Henry; Tyler Hensch; Clayton Jamison; Payton Kaiser; Blake Kimball; Macie Knudsen; Alexandrea Lemon; Alida Maggio; Claire Markstahler; Cameron Marvin; Hanna Mataya; Nolan Miller; Cole Newell; Konnor Orwick; Trustan Price; Madeline Reed; Dillion Rutledge; Alaina Scroggins; Kelley Street; and Taylor Wiersema.Sophomores
High Honor: Rachel Aders; Caleb Amias; Emily Anderlik; Emmalee Atkins; Mary Bryant; Anthony Chaney; Anna Clark; Lauren Cooke; Hunter Duncan; Brendan Graven; Roger Holben; Erin Lopez; Andrew Manrique; Jayci McGraw; Jolie Meyer; Lauren Miller; Dylan Moore; Andrew Mowrer; Mason Perry; Abigail Pieczynski; Julia Ping; Audrey Remole; Sarah Rink; Reece Sarver; Kaitlyn Schweighart; Annabelle Steg; Raena Stierwalt; Sophia Stierwalt; Avery White; and Luke Williamson. Honor: Calvin Baxley; Maria Buffo; Haley Carrington; Jayden Clem; Annah Cloin; Joshua Davidson; Paige Farney; Boden Franklin; Brandon Goyne; Haylen Handal; Tyler Liffick Worrell; Kayla Nelson; Ellen Ping; Cale Rawdin; Alivia Renfoe; Emma Stratton; Emmilia Tieman; Ava Vasey; Garrett Wingler; and Kara Young.Freshmen
High Honor: Evelyn Albaugh; Payton Bradley; Connor Cahill; Analyse Carter; Rebecca Carter; Kendra Cromwell; Desire De Los Santos; Taylor Drennan; Natalie Ellars; Bailey Grob; Madison Henry; Brooke Hewing; Shelby Hoel; Caroline Jamison; Eden Johnson; Cassidy Keller; Caelyn Kleparski; Reagan Little; Zachary Lorbiecki; Tatum Meyer; Eric Miebach; Katelyn Moore; Lauren Neverman; Dalton O’Neill; Anna Polonus; Ava Price; Meredith Reed; Maci Richmond; Briana Ritchie; Isaac Ruggieri; Aubrey Sanders; Aubrey Schaefer; Olivia Shike; Grant Siuts; Logan Siuts; Carsyn Smith; Piper Steele; Lily Steffens; Brock Suding; Ruby Tarr; Andrew Thomas; Henry Thomas; Breanna Weller; Jeremy Wells; Erica Woodard; Abigail Woolcott; Emberly Yeazel; and Madysen York. Honor: Brendan Bachert; Kiersten Bash; Nathan Bleecher; Brenlee Dalton; Elianna Duo; Kamryn Edenburn; Emma Fish; Mike Gray; Margaret Ingleman; Bayleigh Jones; Jocelyn LeFaivre; Trevor McCarter; Dean Niswonger; Gabriel Pound; Zachary Renfrow; James Rennels; Amelia Rinella Flores; Santiago Sanchez Castillo, Erin Sanders; McKayla Schendel; Carly Scroggins; Matthew Short; Josephine Stierwalt; Lynndsay Talbott; Kate Thomas; Aileen Vasquez Munoz; Aidan Ward; Bailey Wayne; Bryson Weaver; Kolten Wells; and Tanner Wells.Bill Banning Locked Seclusion and Face-Down Restraints in Illinois Schools Stalls as Lawmakers Run Out of Time
Jennifer Smith Richards, Chicago Tribune
Jodi S. Cohen, ProPublica
Illinois lawmakers had the support to ban schools from locking students alone in a room or physically restraining them face down. But they didn’t have the time.
A yearlong legislative effort to end decades of controversial practices that often left confined children crying for their parents and tearing at the walls ended without a vote in the Illinois House on Wednesday as the legislative session expired.
The bill had unanimously passed the Senate on Tuesday and was on track for a concurrence vote in the House, but other measures put up for approval instead and last-minute maneuvering by some private schools scuttled plans to call the seclusion bill for a vote.
“Once again, Illinois has failed its children and lost the opportunity to reform school practices that are a serious threat to the safety and well-being of students with disabilities,” said Zena Naiditch, president and CEO of Chicago-based Equip for Equality, a federally appointed watchdog for people with disabilities. She praised the bill’s sponsors for their efforts.
The sponsors quickly pledged to reintroduce the legislation to the new General Assembly in the next couple of weeks.
The legislation would have required any school that receives state funding to make a plan to reduce — and eventually eliminate — its reliance on any kind of timeout and restraint over the next three years.
But a main feature of the bill was an immediate ban on schools’ use of locked seclusion rooms and prone, or face-down, physical restraints. In addition, schools would have been told they could seclude students in unlocked spaces and use other types of restraints only when there is an “imminent danger of serious physical harm” to the student or others. Access to food, water, medication and a bathroom would have been mandatory.
The Illinois State Board of Education would have been directed to sanction schools that didn’t comply with the legislation.
On Tuesday night, advocates for people with disabilities thought their pleas to end the controversial practices would be answered. Some were prepared to issue statements congratulating legislators.
But other issues were pressing as the General Assembly wrapped up its term, including a sweeping criminal justice reform bill, as well as the selection of a new House speaker.
The legislation “had critical components to protect students from harmful and abusive use of seclusion and restraint practices in school,” said Chris Yun with Access Living, a nonprofit that advocates for people with disabilities. “I am very disappointed that resistance from private facilities blocked Illinois from moving forward in the right direction.”
Lawmakers said the biggest challenge to the bill was some schools’ insistence on the need for face-down restraints — though more than 31 states have banned prone restraints because they can obstruct a child’s breathing. Those schools have argued that prone restraint is as safe as other restraints when performed correctly and that sometimes it’s the most effective way to deal with students in crisis.
“We just wish that there would be a way to have a compromise so it is not totally banned but there are qualifiers” and it could be used in some situations, said Sylvia Smith, executive director of Giant Steps, a Lisle school for students with autism. “It is just that sometimes some of our kids, if they have a meltdown, they get extremely agitated and strike out and sometimes they try to hurt themselves or hurt others.”
Such opposition “helped muddy things” ahead of the House vote, said the bill’s sponsor in the Senate, Arlington Heights Democrat Ann Gillespie. Still, she said that wasn’t the primary reason for the bill’s demise.
“We had a fully agreed bill,” said Rep. Jonathan Carroll, a Northbrook Democrat who sponsored the House bill, but “just ran out of time.”
Now the process must begin again with the new General Assembly, which was sworn in Wednesday. Gillespie said the bill would be reintroduced by February. She and Carroll said they are determined to strengthen protections for children.
“We’ve poured over a year of our time into this legislation because we must discontinue these horrific and barbaric practices,” Carroll said. He had been secluded as a child and has spoken about the harm it caused.
The lawmakers are trying to amend a law on seclusion and restraint that has been in place for about 20 years; that law is more vague about when school districts can use these interventions and led to widespread misuse, a 2019 investigation by ProPublica and the Chicago Tribune found.
State rules adopted last April in response to the investigation had placed stricter limits on the use of seclusion — including a prohibition on isolating students behind a locked door — but did not ban prone restraints. Critics of seclusion and restraint had argued that it was important to pass a state law protecting children from these practices, rather than rely on rulemaking.
“The Quiet Rooms” investigation found that about 100 Illinois public school districts had secluded students more than 20,000 times in a 15-month period from September 2017 to December 2018, often to punish children for poor behavior or to force them to comply with workers’ commands. Those reasons weren’t valid under existing state rules on seclusion, but there was no state oversight or enforcement.
Students also had been physically restrained, or held by workers so that they could not move — sometimes pinned on the floor — at least 15,000 times in the same time period, records showed. Workers often restrained students after they were disrespectful or profane and when there was no stated safety concern.
After “The Quiet Rooms” was published, ISBE mandated that all school districts and private schools provide records on their use of seclusion and restraint from the past three school years. Schools also are now required to alert the state within 48 hours of using seclusion or restraint.
In December, ISBE released a summary of the data provided by the schools, revealing at least 10,785 students had been subjected to seclusion and restraint during that three-year period. There were 43,993 incidents of timeout, averaging 30 minutes each, and 53,336 incidents of physical restraint, averaging 10 minutes each.
ISBE found that in nearly 11,000 of those incidents, school workers identified no safety risk before secluding or restraining a student, as required by state law.
Before the Senate’s unanimous vote, Gillespie told fellow legislators that shutting kids inside seclusion rooms “actually tends to exacerbate the behaviors” that school workers are trying to address.
“There are instances where you need to remove the child into a quieter type of environment, but the goal here is to have the school personnel continue to work with the child rather than just locking them up and moving them out,” Gillespie said.
Gillespie told lawmakers that the goal of the three-year planning requirement was for schools to learn alternatives and eventually eliminate the “traumatic interventions.”
“Hopefully schools will learn those techniques and adopt them over time,” she said.
This story was originally published by ProPublica on January 13, 2021. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.
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Unity wrestling runs the table to capture seventh Illini Prairie Conference title
Individual standouts powered Unity’s run through the tournament. Hunter Shike and Chason Daley both finished 6-0, recording multiple...
