(410 ILCS 221/5)

Sec. 5. Legislative findings and purpose. The General Assembly finds the following:

(1) The people of Illinois continue to experience and bear the consequences of unacceptable rates of low birth weight, infant mortality, maternal mortality, child and adolescent health problems, including obesity and teen pregnancy, and disparities among racial and ethnic groups with regard to maternal and child health.

(2) The resolution of these challenges requires an approach that considers the health of the entire population and directs resources to high-risk groups based on epidemiological analysis in order to prevent disability, disease, death, or other adverse circumstance, or what may be termed a public health approach.

(3) The General Assembly began the transfer of maternal and child health programs from the Department of Human Services to the Department of Public Health through the budget for State fiscal year 2014.

Therefore, it is the purpose of the new and amendatory provisions of this Act to complete the transfer of programs and responsibility for direction of Illinois' Maternal and Child Health Block Grant to the Department of Public Health and to complete the transfer of certain statutory authority and regulations from the Department of Human Services to the Department of Public Health, which has already begun through the budget for State fiscal year 2016.

(Source: P.A. 99-901, eff. 8-26-16.)