During this school year, Illinois will make history by becoming the fifth state in the United States to completely ban corporal punishment in all schools.
Governor JB Pritzker recently signed legislation that prohibits physical punishment in private schools, reinforcing the existing ban on the practice in public schools that was put in place 30 years ago.
Once the ban goes into effect in January, Illinois will stand alongside New Jersey, Iowa, Maryland, and New York as states that have outlawed paddling, spanking, or hitting in every educational institution.
The World Health Organization has condemned corporal punishment as a violation of children’s rights to respect for physical integrity and human dignity. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, established in 1990, imposes an obligation to prohibit all forms of corporal punishment on children.
Presently, 17 states technically permit corporal punishment in all schools, although four states prohibit its use on students with disabilities. While North Carolina does not explicitly prohibit corporal punishment, every school district in the state banned its use in 2018. In Illinois, lawmakers took a stand against the practice in public schools back in 1994.
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