101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2019 and 2020
HB3586

 

Introduced , by Rep. Fred Crespo

 

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
 
105 ILCS 5/14-6.01  from Ch. 122, par. 14-6.01
105 ILCS 5/14-8.02f

    Amends the Children with Disabilities Article of the School Code. Provides that, for the Chicago School District only, beginning with the 2019-2020 school year, the school district shall, in collaboration with its primary office overseeing special education policies, publish on the school district's publicly available website any proposed changes to its special education policies, which must be available at least 45 days before the adoption of that policy change. Provides that the school district must make the entirety of its special education Procedural Manual and any other guidance documents pertaining to special education publicly available, in print and on the school district's website, in both English and Spanish. With regard to individualized education program meetings, provides that no later than 5 school days before a child's individualized education program eligibility meeting or meeting to review a child's individualized education program, a school board or school personnel must provide the child's parent or guardian with copies of all relevant information collected about the child so that the parent or guardian may participate as a fully-informed team member of the meeting. Provides that the State Board of Education must (rather than may) create a telephone hotline to address concerns regarding the provision of special education services in a school district. Makes other changes. Effective July 1, 2019.


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FISCAL NOTE ACT MAY APPLY
STATE MANDATES ACT MAY REQUIRE REIMBURSEMENT

 

 

A BILL FOR

 

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1    AN ACT concerning education.
 
2    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3represented in the General Assembly:
 
4    Section 5. The School Code is amended by changing Sections
514-6.01 and 14-8.02f as follows:
 
6    (105 ILCS 5/14-6.01)  (from Ch. 122, par. 14-6.01)
7    Sec. 14-6.01. Powers and duties of school boards. School
8boards of one or more school districts establishing and
9maintaining any of the educational facilities described in this
10Article shall, in connection therewith, exercise similar
11powers and duties as are prescribed by law for the
12establishment, maintenance, and management of other recognized
13educational facilities. Such school boards shall include only
14eligible children in the program and shall comply with all the
15requirements of this Article and all rules and regulations
16established by the State Board of Education. Such school boards
17shall accept in part-time attendance children with
18disabilities of the types described in Sections 14-1.02 through
1914-1.07 who are enrolled in nonpublic schools. A request for
20part-time attendance must be submitted by a parent or guardian
21of the child with a disability and may be made only to those
22public schools located in the district where the child
23attending the nonpublic school resides; however, nothing in

 

 

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1this Section shall be construed as prohibiting an agreement
2between the district where the child resides and another public
3school district to provide special educational services if such
4an arrangement is deemed more convenient and economical.
5Special education and related services must be provided in
6accordance with the student's IEP no later than 10 school
7attendance days after notice is provided to the parents
8pursuant to Section 300.503 of Title 34 of the Code of Federal
9Regulations and implementing rules adopted by the State Board
10of Education. Transportation for students in part time
11attendance shall be provided only if required in the child's
12individualized educational program on the basis of the child's
13disabling condition or as the special education program
14location may require.
15    Beginning with the 2019-2020 school year, a school board
16shall post on its Internet website, if any, and incorporate
17into its student handbook or newsletter notice that students
18with disabilities who do not qualify for an individualized
19education program, as required by the federal Individuals with
20Disabilities Education Act and implementing provisions of this
21Code, may qualify for services under Section 504 of the federal
22Rehabilitation Act of 1973 if the child (i) has a physical or
23mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major
24life activities, (ii) has a record of a physical or mental
25impairment, or (iii) is regarded as having a physical or mental
26impairment. Such notice shall identify the location and phone

 

 

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1number of the office or agent of the school district to whom
2inquiries should be directed regarding the identification,
3assessment and placement of such children.
4    For a school district organized under Article 34 only,
5beginning with the 2019-2020 school year, the school district
6shall, in collaboration with its primary office overseeing
7special education policies, publish on the school district's
8publicly available website any proposed changes to its special
9education policies, which must include any proposed policy
10changes made by the school district or school board. Any policy
11changes authorized by the school district's primary office
12overseeing special education policies or any other
13administrative office of the school district must be published
14on the school district's publicly available website no later
15than 45 days before the adoption of that policy change. Any
16policy changes authorized by the school board must be published
17on the school district's publicly available website no later
18than 30 days before the date of presentation to the school
19board for adoption. The school district's website must allow
20for virtual public comments on proposed special education
21policy changes that must be available from the date of the
22notification of the proposed policy change on the website until
23the date the policy change is adopted by the school district or
24until the date the policy change is presented to the school
25board for adoption. After the period for public comment is
26closed, the school district must maintain all public comments

 

 

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1for a period of not less than 2 years from the date the special
2education policy change is adopted. The school district must
3make those public comments available to the public upon
4request. The school board shall, at a minimum, advertise the
5notice of the policy change and availability for public comment
6on its website.
7    School boards shall immediately provide upon request by any
8person written materials and other information that indicates
9the specific policies, procedures, rules and regulations
10regarding the identification, evaluation or educational
11placement of children with disabilities under Section 14-8.02
12of the School Code. Such information shall include information
13regarding all rights and entitlements of such children under
14this Code, and of the opportunity to present complaints with
15respect to any matter relating to educational placement of the
16student, or the provision of a free appropriate public
17education and to have an impartial due process hearing on the
18complaint. The notice shall inform the parents or guardian in
19the parents' or guardian's native language, unless it is
20clearly not feasible to do so, of their rights and all
21procedures available pursuant to this Act and federal Public
22Law 94-142; it shall be the responsibility of the State
23Superintendent to develop uniform notices setting forth the
24procedures available under this Act and federal Public Law
2594-142, as amended, to be used by all school boards. The notice
26shall also inform the parents or guardian of the availability

 

 

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1upon request of a list of free or low-cost legal and other
2relevant services available locally to assist parents or
3guardians in exercising rights or entitlements under this Code.
4For a school district organized under Article 34 only, the
5school district must make the entirety of its special education
6Procedural Manual and any other guidance documents pertaining
7to special education publicly available, in print and on the
8school district's website, in both English and Spanish. Upon
9request, the school district must make the Procedural Manual
10and other guidance documents available in print in any other
11language.
12    Any parent or guardian who is deaf, or does not normally
13communicate using spoken English, who participates in a meeting
14with a representative of a local educational agency for the
15purposes of developing an individualized educational program
16shall be entitled to the services of an interpreter.
17    No student with a disability or, in a school district
18organized under Article 34 of this Code, child with a learning
19disability may be denied promotion, graduation or a general
20diploma on the basis of failing a minimal competency test when
21such failure can be directly related to the disabling condition
22of the student. For the purpose of this Act, "minimal
23competency testing" is defined as tests which are constructed
24to measure the acquisition of skills to or beyond a certain
25defined standard.
26    Effective July 1, 1966, high school districts are

 

 

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1financially responsible for the education of pupils with
2disabilities who are residents in their districts when such
3pupils have reached age 15 but may admit children with
4disabilities into special educational facilities without
5regard to graduation from the eighth grade after such pupils
6have reached the age of 14 1/2 years. Upon a pupil with a
7disability attaining the age of 14 1/2 years, it shall be the
8duty of the elementary school district in which the pupil
9resides to notify the high school district in which the pupil
10resides of the pupil's current eligibility for special
11education services, of the pupil's current program, and of all
12evaluation data upon which the current program is based. After
13an examination of that information the high school district may
14accept the current placement and all subsequent timelines shall
15be governed by the current individualized educational program;
16or the high school district may elect to conduct its own
17evaluation and multidisciplinary staff conference and
18formulate its own individualized educational program, in which
19case the procedures and timelines contained in Section 14-8.02
20shall apply.
21(Source: P.A. 99-143, eff. 7-27-15; 99-592, eff. 7-22-16;
22100-201, eff. 8-18-17; 100-1112, eff. 8-28-18.)
 
23    (105 ILCS 5/14-8.02f)
24    Sec. 14-8.02f. Individualized education program meeting
25protections ; municipality with 1,000,000 or more inhabitants.

 

 

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1    (a) (Blank). This Section only applies to school districts
2organized under Article 34 of this Code.
3    (b) This subsection applies only to a school district
4organized under Article 34. No later than 10 calendar days
5prior to a child's individualized education program meeting or
6as soon as possible if a meeting is scheduled within 10
7calendar days with written parental consent, the school board
8or school personnel must provide the child's parent or guardian
9with a written notification of the services that require a
10specific data collection procedure from the school district for
11services related to the child's individualized education
12program. The notification must indicate, with a checkbox,
13whether specific data has been collected for the child's
14individualized education program services. For purposes of
15this subsection (b), individualized education program services
16must include, but are not limited to, paraprofessional support,
17an extended school year, transportation, therapeutic day
18school, and services for specific learning disabilities.
19    (c) No later than 5 school days prior to a child's
20individualized education program eligibility meeting or
21meeting to review a child's individualized education program,
22or as soon as possible if an individualized education program
23meeting is scheduled within 5 school days with written parental
24or guardian consent, the school board or school personnel must
25provide the child's parent or guardian with copies of all
26relevant information collected about the child so that the

 

 

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1parent or guardian may participate as a fully-informed team
2member of the meeting. The relevant documentation must include,
3but is not limited to, all evaluations and collected data that
4will be considered at the meeting and, for a child who is
5already found to be eligible for an individualized education
6program, a draft copy of all individualized education program
7components that will be discussed by the individualized
8education program team, other than placement or services
9minutes. as soon as possible if a meeting is scheduled within 5
10school days with written parental consent, the school board or
11school personnel must provide the child's parent or guardian
12with a draft individualized education program. The draft must
13contain all relevant information collected about the child and
14must include, but is not limited to, the program's goals, draft
15accommodations and modifications, copies of all conducted
16evaluations, and any collected data.
17    (d) This subsection applies only to a school district
18organized under Article 34. The school district must make
19service logs that detail the type of services administered
20under a child's individualized education program and that
21minutes each type of service that has been administered
22available to the child's parent or guardian upon request. The
23school district must inform the child's parent or guardian of
24his or her ability to request those service logs at least once
25per school year. If a child's individualized education program
26team determines that certain services are required in order for

 

 

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1the child to receive a free, appropriate public education and
2those services are not implemented within 10 school days after
3the team's determination, then the school board shall provide
4the child's parent or guardian with written notification that
5those services have not yet been administered to the child. The
6notification must be provided to the child's parent or guardian
7within 5 school days of the individualized program team's
8determination and must include information on the parent's or
9guardian's ability to request compensatory services. In this
10subsection, "school days" does not include days where a child
11is absent from school for reasons unrelated to a lack of
12individualized education program services.
13    (e) The State Board of Education must may create a
14telephone hotline to address concerns complaints regarding the
15provision of special education services in a school district or
16lack of special education services of a school district subject
17to this Section. The hotline If a hotline is created, it must
18be available to all children students enrolled or previously
19enrolled in a public school the school district, parents or
20guardians of those children students, and school personnel.
21Calls to the hotline may be made anonymously and no child If a
22hotline is created, any complaints received through the hotline
23must be registered and recorded with the State Board's monitor
24of special education policies. No student, parent or guardian,
25or member of school personnel may be retaliated against for
26submitting a concern complaint through a telephone hotline

 

 

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1created by the State Board under this subsection (e). The State
2Board shall maintain records of the concerns submitted under
3this subsection for no less than 2 years following the
4submission of a concern. Any concerns received through the
5hotline from a child enrolled or previously enrolled in a
6school district organized under Article 34, the parent or
7guardian of that child, or school personnel associated with
8that district must be registered and recorded with the State
9Board's monitor of special education policies during the period
10of time in which the monitor is in effect.
11    (f) A school district subject to this Section may not use
12any measure that would prevent or delay an individualized
13education program team from adding a service to the program or
14create a time restriction in which a service is prohibited from
15being added to the program. The school district may not build
16functions into its computer software that would remove any
17services from a student's individualized education program
18without the approval of the program team and may not prohibit
19the program team from adding a service to the program.
20(Source: P.A. 100-993, eff. 8-20-18.)
 
21    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect July 1,
222019.