405 ILCS 47/ Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health Consultations Act.

(405 ILCS 47/Art. 5 heading) Article 5. (Amendatory provisions; text omitted)(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)

(405 ILCS 47/Art. 10 heading) Article 10. (Amendatory provisions; text omitted)(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)

(405 ILCS 47/Art. 15 heading) Article 15. (The Equitable Early Childhood Education and Care Act is compiled at 325 ILCS 75/)(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)

(405 ILCS 47/Art. 20 heading) Article 20. (The Data Governance and Organization to Support Equity and Racial Justice Act is compiled at 20 ILCS 65/)(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)

(405 ILCS 47/Art. 25 heading) Article 25. (Amendatory provisions; text omitted)(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)

(405 ILCS 47/Art. 35 heading) Article 35.

(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)

(405 ILCS 47/35-1)

Sec. 35-1. Short title. This Article may be cited as the Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health Consultations Act. References in this Article to "this Act" mean this Article.

(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)

(405 ILCS 47/35-5)

Sec. 35-5. Findings; policies.

(a) The General Assembly finds the following:

(1) Social and emotional development is a core developmental domain in young children and is codified in the Illinois Early Learning Standards.

(2) Fostering social and emotional development in early childhood means both providing the supportive settings and interactions to maximize healthy social and emotional development for all children, as well as providing communities, programs, and providers with systems of tiered supports with training to respond to more significant social and emotional challenges or where experiences of trauma may be more prevalent.

(3) Early care and education programs and providers, across a range of settings, have an important role to play in supporting young children and families, especially those who face greater challenges, such as trauma exposure, social isolation, pervasive poverty, and toxic stress; if programs, teaching staff, caregivers, and providers are not provided with the support, services, and training needed to accomplish these goals, it can lead to children and families being asked to leave programs, particularly without connection to more appropriate services, thereby creating a disruption in learning and social-emotional development; investments in reflective supervision, professional development specific to diversity, equity and inclusion practice, culturally responsive training, implicit bias training, and how trauma experienced during the early years can manifest in challenging behaviors will create systems for serving children that are informed in developmentally appropriate and responsive supports.

(4) Studies have shown that the expulsion of infants, toddlers, and young children in early care and education settings is occurring at alarmingly high rates, more than 3 times that of students in K-12; further, expulsion occurs more frequently for Black children and Latinx children and more frequently for boys than for girls, with Black boys being most frequently expelled; there is evidence to show that the expulsion of Black girls is occurring with increasing frequency.

(5) Illinois took its first steps toward addressing this disparity through Public Act 100-105 to prohibit expulsion due to child behavior in early care and education settings, but further work is needed to implement this law, including strengthening provider understanding of a successful transition and beginning to identify strategies to reduce "soft expulsions" and to ensure more young children and their teachers, providers, and caregivers, in a range of early care and education settings, can benefit from services, such as Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health Consultations (I/ECMHC) and positive behavior interventions and supports such as the Pyramid Model.

(6) I/ECMHC is a critical component needed to align social-emotional well-being with the public health model of promotion, prevention, and intervention across early care and education systems.

(b) The General Assembly encourages that all of the following actions be taken by:

(1) the State to increase the availability of Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health Consultations (I/ECMHC) through increased funding in early childhood programs and sustainable funding for coordination of I/ECMHC and other social and emotional support at the State level;

(2) the Department of Human Services (IDHS), the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), the Governor's Office of Early Childhood Development (GOECD), and other relevant agencies to develop and promote provider-accessible and parent-accessible materials, including native language, on the role and value of I/ECMHC, including targeted promotion in underserved communities, and promote the use of existing I/ECMHCs, the I/ECMHC consultant database, or other existing services;

(3) the State to increase funding to promote and provide training and implementation support for systems of tiered support, such as the Pyramid Model, across early childhood settings and urge DHS, ISBE, GOECD, and other relevant State agencies to coordinate efforts and develop strategies to provide outreach to and support providers in underserved communities and communities with fewer programmatic resources; and

(4) ISBE and DCFS to provide the data required by Public Act 100-105, even if the data is incomplete at the time due to data system challenges.

(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)

(405 ILCS 47/Art. 40 heading) Article 40. (Amendatory provisions; text omitted)(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)

(405 ILCS 47/Art. 45 heading) Article 45. (The Early Childhood Workforce Act is compiled at 325 ILCS 80/)(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)

(405 ILCS 47/Art. 50 heading) Article 50. (Amendatory provisions; text omitted)(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)

(405 ILCS 47/Art. 60 heading) Article 60. (Amendatory provisions; text omitted)(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)

(405 ILCS 47/Art. 65 heading) Article 65. (Amendatory provisions; text omitted)(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)

(405 ILCS 47/Art. 70 heading) Article 70. (Amendatory provisions; text omitted)(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)

(405 ILCS 47/Art. 75 heading) Article 75. (Amendatory provisions; text omitted)(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)

(405 ILCS 47/Art. 85 heading) Article 85. (Amendatory provisions; text omitted)(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)

(405 ILCS 47/Art. 95 heading) Article 95. (The Equity in Higher Education Act is compiled at 110 ILCS 235/)(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)

(405 ILCS 47/Art. 100 heading) Article 100. (The Developmental Education Reform Act is compiled at 110 ILCS 175/)(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)

(405 ILCS 47/Art. 115 heading) Article 115. (Amendatory provisions; text omitted)(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)

(405 ILCS 47/Art. 120 heading) Article 120. (Amendatory provisions; text omitted)(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)

(405 ILCS 47/Art. 125 heading) Article 125. (Amendatory provisions; text omitted)(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)

(405 ILCS 47/Art. 130 heading) Article 130. (The Transitions in Education Act is compiled at 110 ILCS 180/)(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)

(405 ILCS 47/Art. 135 heading) Article 135. (Amendatory provisions; text omitted)(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)

(405 ILCS 47/Art. 145 heading) Article 145. (The Early Education Act is compiled at 325 ILCS 21/)(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)

(405 ILCS 47/Art. 150 heading) Article 150. (Amendatory provisions; text omitted)(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)

(405 ILCS 47/Art. 155 heading) Article 155. (Amendatory provisions; text omitted)(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)

(405 ILCS 47/Art. 999 heading) Article 999.

(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)

(405 ILCS 47/999-999)

Sec. 999-999. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.

(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)