Starting this school year, Illinois will become the fifth state in the nation to prohibit corporal punishment in all schools.
Governor JB Pritzker recently signed legislation that bans physical punishment in private schools, reinforcing a prohibition on such practices in public schools that has been in place for 30 years.
When the new law takes effect in January, Illinois will join New Jersey, Iowa, Maryland, and New York in banning practices such as paddling, spanking, or hitting in every school.
State Representative Margaret Croke, a Democrat from Chicago, was motivated to address this issue after the American Association of Pediatrics renewed its call to end corporal punishment, citing evidence that it can lead to behavioral or mental health issues and hinder cognitive development. The association also found that corporal punishment is disproportionately used against Black males and students with disabilities.
“It was an obvious choice. I don’t want any child, whether in private or public school, to be subjected to corporal punishment,” said Croke.
Croke was also troubled by the actions of the Cassville School District in southwest Missouri, which, after eliminating corporal punishment in 2001, reinstated it two years ago as an opt-in option for parents. Croke wanted to send a clear message that inflicting harm or pain on a child is never acceptable.
This stance aligns with global perspectives.
The World Health Organization has declared corporal punishment “a violation of children’s rights to respect for physical integrity and human dignity.” In 1990, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child established a mandate to “prohibit all corporal punishment of children.”
The United States, however, was the only country that did not ratify this convention. Americans tend to have a pragmatic view of corporal punishment, according to Sarah A. Font, associate professor of sociology and public policy at Penn State University.
“Although research consistently shows that corporal punishment doesn’t improve children’s behavior in the long term and may have negative consequences, people are reluctant to believe it,” Font said. “Many rely on their personal experiences, thinking, ‘I was punished this way, and I turned out fine,’ disregarding the broader evidence.”
In an effort to address this, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, introduced legislation last year, co-sponsored by Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, to ban corporal punishment in any school receiving federal funds. Although it was assigned to a Senate committee for a public hearing in May 2023, the bill has not advanced further.
The U.S. Supreme Court has also rejected constitutional challenges to corporal punishment. In 1977, when junior high students in Dade County, Florida, filed a lawsuit against physical discipline, the court ruled that the Eighth Amendment’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment applies to convicted criminals, not to school discipline.
Today, 17 states technically allow corporal punishment in all schools, though four prohibit its use on students with disabilities. While North Carolina law does not ban it outright, every school district in the state ceased its use in 2018. Illinois lawmakers banned corporal punishment in public schools in 1994.
Among the states that have fully outlawed the practice, New Jersey took an early stand by banning corporal punishment in all schools in 1867. Iowa followed in 1989 by prohibiting it in private schools. Maryland and New York extended their bans to private schools in 2023.
Private school advocates, typically opposed to state interference, did not object to the new law.
Schools affiliated with the Catholic Conference of Illinois do not use corporal punishment, according to its executive director, Bob Gilligan.
“It’s an outdated practice,” he said.
Ralph Rivera, representing the Illinois Coalition of Nonpublic Schools, said he is unaware of any member school that uses corporal punishment. While the group generally opposes state regulation, Rivera noted that objecting to a ban on corporal punishment is a difficult position to defend.
“Even if they don’t use it, schools told us to stay out of it because it doesn’t look good to argue, ‘No, we want the right to spank children,’” Rivera said.
The new law does not apply to homeschooling. Homeschooled students are subject to the same rules during school hours as they are after school.
Regarding student-athletes, Croke clarified during a floor debate last spring that discipline or correction during sports practices or games would need to be extreme to be considered corporal punishment.
“For example, if a coach tells a student to run laps, that wouldn’t fall under this law because the intent isn’t to inflict pain,” Croke explained.
Despite this, the legislative debate included Republican concerns that imposing this requirement on private schools might pave the way for further regulations, such as those affecting curriculum or religious teachings.
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Croke, whose school-age child attends a Catholic school, emphasized that her goal was not to increase state regulation of private education but to “protect children from harm.”
“There’s a clear boundary here—hitting children should never be allowed,” Croke said.
