According to Section 22-70 of the School Code [105 ILCS 5/22-70], school districts and non-sectarian recognized non-public schools are required to report to the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) the number of enrolled students identified as children of U.S. military personnel:
“At the time of annual enrollment or at any time during the school year, a school district or a recognized non-public school, except for sectarian non-public schools, serving any of grades kindergarten through 12 shall provide, either on its standard enrollment form or on a separate form, the opportunity for the individual enrolling the student to voluntarily state whether the student has a parent or guardian who is a member of a branch of the armed forces of the United States and who is either deployed to active duty or expects to be deployed to active duty during the school year. Each school district and recognized non-public school shall report this enrollment information as aggregate data to the State Board of Education.”
To comply with the law, school districts and non-sectarian recognized non-public schools are required to submit to ISBE, as applicable for a given month, the following data.
- The count of students enrolled that month for whom the individuals enrolling them chose to disclose that the student has a parent or guardian who is a member of a branch of the armed forces of the United States and who is either deployed to active duty or expects to be deployed to active duty during the school year.
(If no students are enrolled during a given month, or if the students enrolled during a given month are not identified as children of U.S. military personnel, then no data are required to be reported for that month.)
For any school district or recognized non-public school that reports data, ISBE will display a cumulative total for the year (through the most recent month for which data entry is closed/no longer allowed). This total will be the overall count of students submitted to ISBE. Totals of 10 or more will be released to the public; to protect student privacy, totals of less than 10 will display as blank.
