(a) The State Board of Education, subject to appropriation, is authorized to award competitive grants on an annual basis under a Safe Schools and Healthy Learning Environments Grant Program. The goal of this grant program is to promote school safety and healthy learning environments by providing schools with additional resources to implement restorative interventions and resolution strategies as alternatives to exclusionary discipline, and to address the full range of students' intellectual, social, emotional, physical, psychological, and moral developmental needs.

(b) To receive a grant under this program, a school district must submit with its grant application a plan for implementing evidence-based and promising practices that are aligned with the goal of this program. The application may include proposals to (i) hire additional school support personnel, including, but not limited to, restorative justice practitioners, school psychologists, school social workers, and other mental and behavioral health specialists; (ii) use existing school-based resources, community-based resources, or other experts and practitioners to expand alternatives to exclusionary discipline, mental and behavioral health supports, wraparound services, or drug and alcohol treatment; and (iii) provide training for school staff on trauma-informed approaches to meeting students' developmental needs, addressing the effects of toxic stress, restorative justice approaches, conflict resolution techniques, and the effective utilization of school support personnel and community-based services. For purposes of this subsection, "promising practices" means practices that present, based on preliminary information, potential for becoming evidence-based practices.

(b-5) Among the many possible disciplinary interventions and consequences available to school officials, school exclusions, such as out-of-school suspensions and expulsions, are the most serious. School officials shall limit the number and duration of expulsions and suspensions to the greatest extent practicable, and it is recommended that they use them only for legitimate educational purposes. To ensure that students are not excluded from school unnecessarily, it is recommended that school officials consider forms of non-exclusionary discipline prior to using out-of-school suspensions or expulsions.

(b-10) Unless otherwise required by federal law or this Code, school boards may not institute zero-tolerance policies by which school administrators are required to suspend or expel students for particular behaviors. [...]

Alternative learning opportunities programs may include without limitation evening high school, in-school tutoring and mentoring programs, in-school suspension programs, high school completion programs to assist high school dropouts in completing their education, support services, parental involvement programs, and programs to develop, enhance, or extend the transition for students transferring back to the regular school program, an adult education program, or a post-secondary education program.

(b) In this Section:

"Policy on bullying" means a bullying prevention policy that meets the following criteria:

"Restorative measures" means a continuum of school-based alternatives to exclusionary discipline, such as suspensions and expulsions, that: (i) are adapted to the particular needs of the school and community, (ii) contribute to maintaining school safety, (iii) protect the integrity of a positive and productive learning climate, (iv) teach students the personal and interpersonal skills they will need to be successful in school and society, (v) serve to build and restore relationships among students, families, schools, and communities, (vi) reduce the likelihood of future disruption by balancing accountability with an understanding of students' behavioral health needs in order to keep students in school, and (vii) increase student accountability if the incident of bullying is based on religion, race, ethnicity, or any other category that is identified in the Illinois Human Rights Act.