Hundreds of bills are introduced in Springfield every session. Here's the bills we're following the most closely during the current session of the 101st IL General Assembly, including our own initiatives, HB3606 and HB254. Bills are marked with their PA number if they've been signed into law.
Fall veto session begins Oct 28, 2019. Bills that we expect may be called in veto session, having passed one chamber in the spring, are SB453 and HB256. Please ask your state representative to support SB453 and your state senator to support HB256.
- SB453 Promoting Inclusive Local School Councils [Fact Sheet] Reduces barriers for civically engaged parents and community leaders to serve as Local School Council (LSC) members in CPS. Allows CPS to amend the LSC candidate eligibility to that of parent and community members classified as Level II volunteers while ensuring that LSC candidates are screened against the Sex Offender and Violent Offender Against Youth Databases.
- HB256: No Videotaping for Student Teacher Licensure [Fact Sheet] Prohibits any requirement of videotaping of student teachers or their students in order for the student teacher to receive their license. Currently, ISBE requires student teachers to pass the edTPA an assessment for which video is uploaded and sent to Pearson, Inc. for evaluation. You can read more about the problems with the edTPA including the video component here.
Key legislation
- PA 101-0516 (HB3606/SB2089) Student Data Protection [Fact Sheet] Parents have a right to know and a right to control how their child’s personal data is being used by schools, companies and government agencies. Read more about why we need better student data protection legislation here. The law will go into effect July 2021.
- HB2267 Elected School Board for Chicago Chicago is the only school district in the state with a mayoral appointed school board. This bill would give CPS an elected board via an election in 2023 with members from 20 districts and one at-large president.
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PA 101-0451 (HB254): Class Size Goals [Fact Sheet] Requires districts to report detailed data on individual class sizes to ISBE as well as how many classes meet the class size recommendations used in the state funding formula. Reporting begins fall of 2020.
Other bills we support
Charter schools
- PA 101-0543 (SB1226 /HB2100) Abolish State Charter Commission. Transfer powers to ISBE. Replace appeal process for charters with judicial review. The unelected State Charter Commission allows for the operation of charters schools over the wishes of local school boards. The Commission can override local decisions and approve charter schools that a local school board has rejected. Schools that are approved by the Commission get increased funding over local district amounts, and this comes from the local district's budget even though they have no say on how the charter school is run.
- HB278 No new for-profit CMOs Charter schools must be non-profit, but non-profit charters can hire for-profit Charter Management Organizations to run the school and receive all of the funding. This law would close that loophole. (See also HB811)
- HB279 No new charters in financially-distressed districts Places moratorium on the establishment of new charter schools (or new campuses of existing charter schools) in financially distressed districts. Financially distressed districts are those districts which are unable to fund their schools at least 90% of what the state has determined to be adequate.
- HB334/SB188 LSCs for all Establishes elected Local School Councils for Chicago charter schools and other district-run CPS schools that currently have appointed LSCs ("ALSCs"). It also adds an appointed student member to LSCs that serve students in 7th and 8th grade but don't currently have a student member, and creates new support for LSC certification training.
Special Education and Nursing
- PA 101-0507 (HB3302) [Fact sheet] Extend statute of limitations on filing complaints on inquiry-related loss of services. Parents have two years after the creation of a state compensatory education plan to file a complaint about delay or denial of special ed services by CPS during 2016-2018
- PA 101-0515 (HB3586) [Fact sheet]Transparency on special education policies and services. Parents have three days to review documentation before an IEP meeting. CPS must post any special ed policy changes publicly 45 days before adoption.
- PA 101-0050 (HB1475) Seizure Smart School. Many students at CPS (and other districts) have no one in the school trained on their child’s emergency medication for seizures. This bill allows willing staff to be trained.
- PA 101-0428 (HB822) Undesignated Glucagon. Glucagon is an emergency life-saving medication for students with Type1 diabetes. This bill allows doctors to prescribe the medicine to schools so they can keep a supply in the office. It also also allows willing staff to administer in the event a nurse is not available.