An amendment to Senate Bill 16 was heard before the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday. It seeks to better prepare schools for handling incidents of trauma.
The measure was filed by state Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood, and uses findings from the state’s Whole Child Task Force, which was founded in 2021 and aims to provide an equitable, inclusive, safe, and supportive environment for schools.
The findings from the task force’s 2022 report suggested changes in training to help staff better identify incidents of trauma as well as ways to treat students who experience it.
Lightford said her amendment seeks to implement these findings.
“It acts on many of the reccomendations that came out of the Whole Child Task Force and lays foundational elements for our schools and school communities to become trauma-informed and healing-centered,” Lightford said.
The amendment would set up a Child Adversity Index, which Lightford said can help better identify instances of trauma experienced by a student.
“The third thing it does is creates a Child Adversity Index to shed light on student exposure to trauma across the state,” Lightford said.
The amendment did not lead to significant pushback from other members of the committee, but there were questions raised about school enrollment.
State Sen. Dan McConchie, R-Hawthorne Woods, asked Lightford about smaller schools and whether they will be required to implement the findings.
“One of the things that stood out to me is that it does not appear to require the inclusion of someone from smaller rural areas,” McConchie said.
Lightford said her measure would include smaller schools from all over the state, including Bloomington School District 87 and Southern Illinois School of Medicine.
The Committee adopted the amendment, which now awaits further action.
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