District approves ISBE-required discipline improvement plan after board hears data on disproportionality and restorative rooms

The Lyons Township High School District 204 Board of Education on Jan. 15 voted to approve the district27s Discipline Improvement Plan required by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) after staff presented data showing racial disproportionality in out-of-school suspensions and early results from a restorative-intervention-room pilot.

ISBE requirement and local data: ISBE requires districts that fall in the top 20% on suspension, expulsion or racial-disproportionality metrics to post an improvement plan by Feb. 1. District presenters said LT27s overall out-of-school suspension rate for the year ending 2024 was 2.18, ranking roughly 469 out of 500 eligible districts on that metric; the district reported a calculated racial disproportionality ratio of 5.09 for students of color compared with white students on suspension that made the district eligible for the improvement-plan requirement.

Key points of the plan and recent results - Restorative Intervention Rooms (RIRs): Administrators said RIRs operated for one semester this school year at each campus as a targeted alternative to exclusionary discipline. Staff reported early, encouraging indicators: comparable measurements presented indicated a drop from 30 students suspended out of school (32 incidents) in the prior year27s first semester to 6 students suspended in the first semester after RIRs were implemented (roughly an 80% decrease in the number of students receiving out-of-school suspensions for the comparable semester). The combined count of out-of-school and in-school suspension incidents decreased from 156 after the first semester of the prior year to 110 in the current year27s first semester. - Focus and approaches in the improvement plan: The plan centers on creating a culture and climate of belonging; expanding inclusive academic opportunities and social-emotional supports; implementing restorative practices across tiers; targeted professional learning (including implicit-bias training developed in-house); and using third-party resources for substance-use assessment and support (the district identified Rosecrans and an online program, 3rd Millennium, among resources discussed). - Family and reentry processes: Staff described intake and reentry meetings that involve parents or guardians when a student is assigned to an RIR or returns from suspension, and said the district intends to continue monitoring recidivism and student feedback forms that are used after RIR participation.

Board action and discussion Administrators asked the board to review and approve the ISBE-required plan for posting. Board members asked clarifying questions about ISBE eligibility rules, summary ranking calculations, whether the RIR data post-dated the ISBE data, and how the district will continue to address racial disproportionality. Presenters acknowledged the district remained concerned about the disproportionality measure for the year ending 2024 but said the RIR implementation occurred after the reported data and that the district expects further improvement as additional semesters of RIR data are collected.

The board voted to approve the Discipline Improvement Plan; staff said they will post the plan and continue quarterly reviews of discipline metrics with building leadership and the student-services team.