There are some new laws going into effect this year or some in the process of becoming laws, which will affect schools throughout Illinois. At the last Board of Education meeting, Nashville Grade School Superintendent Mike Brink reported that one law will go into effect on September 1st dealing with student discipline and this will be addressed in the next school year’s handbook. An advisory group of young adults in Chicago has advocated for a change to lesser penalties to students to keep them in school as much as possible says Brink. They reported that every day there are 324 students are suspended, 29 students are arrested and over 90 percent of them are for minor violations. He elaborated on some of the changes. A parent – teacher advisory committee will need to be created. Zero tolerance is not at NGS, but for other schools it will be eliminated, which was in place to expel a student if they brought a knife to school, for example. There will also be a significant increase in paperwork to suspend or expel as student. Students shall also have a reasonable opportunity to make up work for full credit, so if a student was out for 3 days due to discipline issues, they would receive 3 days to get the work turned in for full credit. Anything after that would be for less or no credit. It will also limit the use of suspensions and expulsions to the greatest extent possible and they had one or two at NGS this year. In Chicago, a fee is charged to the student that they could pay instead of detention or worse. This new law will also do away with that.