Effective January 1, 2018, schools that get state funding cannot expel preschool students for exhibiting challenging behavior.

Instead, these schools must use other methods to better help the student:

• Use community resources to help the student;
• Document the steps taken to ensure that the student can safely participate in the preschool program;
• Create a transition plan, if necessary for the student’s well-being;
• Move the student to a different program;

A student may be a serious safety threat to other students. Then the school may temporarily remove them from group settings.Under the Illinois preschool expulsion law, the school must help the student return back to group settings as quickly as possible.

Throughout these processes, the school must communicate with the student’s parents or guardians.