(105 ILCS 5/2-3.64a-10)

Sec. 2-3.64a-10. Kindergarten assessment.

(a) For the purposes of this Section, "kindergarten" includes both full-day and half-day kindergarten programs.

(b) Beginning no later than the 2021-2022 school year, the State Board of Education shall annually assess all public school students entering kindergarten using a common assessment tool, unless the State Board determines that a student is otherwise exempt. The common assessment tool must assess multiple developmental domains, including literacy, language, mathematics, and social and emotional development. The assessment must be valid, reliable, and developmentally appropriate to formatively assess a child's development and readiness for kindergarten.

(c) Results from the assessment may be used by the school to understand the child's development and readiness for kindergarten, to tailor instruction, and to measure the child's progress over time. Assessment results may also be used to identify a need for the professional development of teachers and early childhood educators and to inform State-level and district-level policies and resource allocation.

The school shall make the assessment results available to the child's parent or guardian.

The assessment results may not be used (i) to prevent a child from enrolling in kindergarten or (ii) as the sole measure used in determining the grade promotion or retention of a student.

(d) On an annual basis, the State Board shall report publicly, at a minimum, data from the assessment for the State overall and for each school district. The State Board's report must disaggregate data by race and ethnicity, household income, students who are English learners, and students who have an individualized education program.

(e) The State Superintendent of Education shall appoint a committee of no more than 21 members, including parents, teachers, school administrators, assessment experts, regional superintendents of schools, state policy advocates, early childhood administrators, and other stakeholders, to review, on an ongoing basis, the content and design of the assessment, the collective results of the assessment as measured against kindergarten-readiness standards, and other issues involving the assessment as identified by the committee.

The committee shall make periodic recommendations to the State Superintendent of Education and the General Assembly concerning the assessments.

(f) The State Board may adopt rules to implement and administer this Section.

(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21; 102-635, eff. 11-30-21 (See Section 10 of P.A. 102-671 for effective date of P.A. 102-209).)