Illinois school threat assessment team law

Do Illinois schools have to have threat assessment teams?

Yes, at the district level: each school district must implement a threat assessment procedure, and the procedure must include creating a threat assessment team. The procedure may be part of a school board policy on preventing targeted school violence. A district that cannot staff a team with its own staff and resources may use a regional behavioral threat assessment and intervention team with mental health professionals and state, county and local law enforcement. A charter school chartered by a local board of education may follow the board's procedure or run its own procedure that fully meets the law. A special education cooperative under a joint agreement must run its own threat assessment procedure, including a team.

Who must be on the team?

The team must include at least one law enforcement official. It must also include representatives of the district from several disciplines who are most directly familiar with the mental and behavioral health needs of students and staff. Those representatives may include an administrator, a teacher, a school counselor, a school psychologist and a school social worker, employed by the district or a special education cooperative that serves it. That list is optional today; as enacted in 2019, the team had to include all of the listed members.

What must the procedure include, and what starts an assessment?

The law does not say what triggers a threat assessment or when one must be done; the procedure's content is left to each district and to state guidance. The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) must give districts guidance on what their procedure must include, including how and when to notify parents and community members of a threat. ISBE must publish that guidance on its website. Districts must add what the guidance requires to their procedure within the school year after ISBE publishes it. ISBE and the Office of the State Fire Marshal must develop guidelines on threat assessment procedures for districts, private schools and first responders. ISBE, with the Illinois State Police, must adopt rules to carry out the 2025 changes. The yearly review of school emergency and crisis response plans with first responders includes procedures for the district's threat assessment team.

Must schools report a dangerous person to the state police?

A school administrator who determines that a person poses a clear and present danger must notify the Illinois State Police within 24 hours. This duty comes from the FOID Card Act (the state's firearm owner ID law), not the threat assessment law. ISBE's school safety page tells school administrators to make that report within 24 hours.

Is training required?

The threat assessment section sets no training requirement for team members.

Do districts file anything?

Each year before school starts, the school board must file its threat assessment procedure and a list of team members with a local law enforcement agency and the regional office of education (a district organized under Article 34 of the School Code files with the State Board of Education instead). Districts had to set up the team within 180 days, and an initial procedure within 120 days, after August 23, 2019.

What about records?

Any sharing of student information under the threat assessment section must follow FERPA (the federal student privacy law) and the Illinois School Student Records Act. The section has no rule on transferring threat assessment records when a student changes schools. Records about the work of a district's threat assessment team, including the procedure, are exempt from public records requests under the state Freedom of Information Act.

Is there funding?

The threat assessment section creates no grant, appropriation or dedicated funding for teams.

What changed recently?

SB2057 became Public Act 104-0407, effective August 15, 2025, adding ISBE's guidance and rulemaking duties. The current threat assessment section lists that act among its amending acts.