Police officers who work in Chicago Public schools and other districts across the state could be required to get special training under a proposed bill moving forward in the Illinois legislature, while another bill would give funds to schools that hire behavioral or mental health counselors to help with discipline.
Police reform advocates are now poised to achieve their goal of required training for any school-based police officer across Illinois.
Lightford convened a working group made up of Mbekeani-Wiley (the Shriver Center attorney who helped author the original bill) and the opposing groups to hammer out a deal. The group met weekly for months. Lightford said Mbekeani-Wiley played the role of both advocate and trusted guide doing an “amazing” job of bringing each group on board with the final version of the bill.
Officers will be trained in “areas of youth and adolescent developmental issues, educational administrative issues, prevention of child abuse and exploitation, youth mental health treatment, and juvenile advocacy,” according to the final version of the Senate bill.
Story by Jeremy Borden with Alex Y. Ding and Olivia Cunningham contributing.
