Public Act 094-0219
 
HB3451 Enrolled LRB094 09221 RAS 39455 b

    AN ACT concerning education.
 
    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
 
    Section 5. The School Code is amended by changing Sections
10-21.9, 27A-5, and 34-18.5 as follows:
 
    (105 ILCS 5/10-21.9)  (from Ch. 122, par. 10-21.9)
    Sec. 10-21.9. Criminal history records checks and checks of
the Statewide Sex Offender Database.
    (a) Certified and noncertified applicants for employment
with a school district, except school bus driver applicants,
are required as a condition of employment to authorize a
fingerprint-based criminal history records check to determine
if such applicants have been convicted of any of the enumerated
criminal or drug offenses in subsection (c) of this Section or
have been convicted, within 7 years of the application for
employment with the school district, of any other felony under
the laws of this State or of any offense committed or attempted
in any other state or against the laws of the United States
that, if committed or attempted in this State, would have been
punishable as a felony under the laws of this State.
Authorization for the check shall be furnished by the applicant
to the school district, except that if the applicant is a
substitute teacher seeking employment in more than one school
district, a teacher seeking concurrent part-time employment
positions with more than one school district (as a reading
specialist, special education teacher or otherwise), or an
educational support personnel employee seeking employment
positions with more than one district, any such district may
require the applicant to furnish authorization for the check to
the regional superintendent of the educational service region
in which are located the school districts in which the
applicant is seeking employment as a substitute or concurrent
part-time teacher or concurrent educational support personnel
employee. Upon receipt of this authorization, the school
district or the appropriate regional superintendent, as the
case may be, shall submit the applicant's name, sex, race, date
of birth, social security number, fingerprint images, and other
identifiers, as prescribed by the Department of State Police,
to the Department. The regional superintendent submitting the
requisite information to the Department of State Police shall
promptly notify the school districts in which the applicant is
seeking employment as a substitute or concurrent part-time
teacher or concurrent educational support personnel employee
that the check of the applicant has been requested. The
Department of State Police and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation shall furnish, pursuant to a fingerprint-based
criminal history records check, records of convictions, until
expunged, to the president of the school board for the school
district that requested the check, or to the regional
superintendent who requested the check. The Department shall
charge the school district or the appropriate regional
superintendent a fee for conducting such check, which fee shall
be deposited in the State Police Services Fund and shall not
exceed the cost of the inquiry; and the applicant shall not be
charged a fee for such check by the school district or by the
regional superintendent. Subject to appropriations for these
purposes, the State Superintendent of Education shall
reimburse school districts and regional superintendents for
fees paid to obtain criminal history records checks under this
Section.
    (a-5) The school district or regional superintendent shall
further perform a check of the Statewide Sex Offender Database,
as authorized by the Sex Offender and Child Murderer Community
Notification Law, for each applicant.
    (b) Any information concerning the record of convictions
obtained by the president of the school board or the regional
superintendent shall be confidential and may only be
transmitted to the superintendent of the school district or his
designee, the appropriate regional superintendent if the check
was requested by the school district, the presidents of the
appropriate school boards if the check was requested from the
Department of State Police by the regional superintendent, the
State Superintendent of Education, the State Teacher
Certification Board or any other person necessary to the
decision of hiring the applicant for employment. A copy of the
record of convictions obtained from the Department of State
Police shall be provided to the applicant for employment. Upon
the check of the Statewide Sex Offender Database, the school
district or regional superintendent shall notify an applicant
as to whether or not the applicant has been identified in the
Database as a sex offender. If a check of an applicant for
employment as a substitute or concurrent part-time teacher or
concurrent educational support personnel employee in more than
one school district was requested by the regional
superintendent, and the Department of State Police upon a check
ascertains that the applicant has not been convicted of any of
the enumerated criminal or drug offenses in subsection (c) or
has not been convicted, within 7 years of the application for
employment with the school district, of any other felony under
the laws of this State or of any offense committed or attempted
in any other state or against the laws of the United States
that, if committed or attempted in this State, would have been
punishable as a felony under the laws of this State and so
notifies the regional superintendent and if the regional
superintendent upon a check ascertains that the applicant has
not been identified in the Sex Offender Database as a sex
offender, then the regional superintendent shall issue to the
applicant a certificate evidencing that as of the date
specified by the Department of State Police the applicant has
not been convicted of any of the enumerated criminal or drug
offenses in subsection (c) or has not been convicted, within 7
years of the application for employment with the school
district, of any other felony under the laws of this State or
of any offense committed or attempted in any other state or
against the laws of the United States that, if committed or
attempted in this State, would have been punishable as a felony
under the laws of this State and evidencing that as of the date
that the regional superintendent conducted a check of the
Statewide Sex Offender Database, the applicant has not been
identified in the Database as a sex offender. The school board
of any school district located in the educational service
region served by the regional superintendent who issues such a
certificate to an applicant for employment as a substitute
teacher in more than one such district may rely on the
certificate issued by the regional superintendent to that
applicant, or may initiate its own criminal history records
check of the applicant through the Department of State Police
and its own check of the Statewide Sex Offender Database as
provided in subsection (a). Any person who releases any
confidential information concerning any criminal convictions
of an applicant for employment shall be guilty of a Class A
misdemeanor, unless the release of such information is
authorized by this Section.
    (c) No school board shall knowingly employ a person who has
been convicted for committing attempted first degree murder or
for committing or attempting to commit first degree murder or a
Class X felony or any one or more of the following offenses:
(i) those defined in Sections 11-6, 11-9, 11-14, 11-15,
11-15.1, 11-16, 11-17, 11-18, 11-19, 11-19.1, 11-19.2, 11-20,
11-20.1, 11-21, 12-13, 12-14, 12-14.1, 12-15 and 12-16 of the
"Criminal Code of 1961"; (ii) those defined in the "Cannabis
Control Act" except those defined in Sections 4(a), 4(b) and
5(a) of that Act; (iii) those defined in the "Illinois
Controlled Substances Act"; and (iv) any offense committed or
attempted in any other state or against the laws of the United
States, which if committed or attempted in this State, would
have been punishable as one or more of the foregoing offenses.
Further, no school board shall knowingly employ a person who
has been found to be the perpetrator of sexual or physical
abuse of any minor under 18 years of age pursuant to
proceedings under Article II of the Juvenile Court Act of 1987.
    (d) No school board shall knowingly employ a person for
whom a criminal history records check and a Statewide Sex
Offender Database check has not been initiated.
    (e) Upon receipt of the record of a conviction of or a
finding of child abuse by a holder of any certificate issued
pursuant to Article 21 or Section 34-8.1 or 34-83 of the School
Code, the appropriate regional superintendent of schools or the
State Superintendent of Education shall initiate the
certificate suspension and revocation proceedings authorized
by law.
    (f) After January 1, 1990 the provisions of this Section
shall apply to all employees of persons or firms holding
contracts with any school district including, but not limited
to, food service workers, school bus drivers and other
transportation employees, who have direct, daily contact with
the pupils of any school in such district. For purposes of
criminal history records checks and checks of the Statewide Sex
Offender Database on employees of persons or firms holding
contracts with more than one school district and assigned to
more than one school district, the regional superintendent of
the educational service region in which the contracting school
districts are located may, at the request of any such school
district, be responsible for receiving the authorization for a
criminal history records check prepared by each such employee
and submitting the same to the Department of State Police and
for conducting a check of the Statewide Sex Offender Database
for each employee. Any information concerning the record of
conviction and identification as a sex offender of any such
employee obtained by the regional superintendent shall be
promptly reported to the president of the appropriate school
board or school boards.
(Source: P.A. 93-418, eff. 1-1-04; 93-909, eff. 8-12-04.)
 
    (105 ILCS 5/27A-5)
    Sec. 27A-5. Charter school; legal entity; requirements.
    (a) A charter school shall be a public, nonsectarian,
nonreligious, non-home based, and non-profit school. A charter
school shall be organized and operated as a nonprofit
corporation or other discrete, legal, nonprofit entity
authorized under the laws of the State of Illinois.
    (b) A charter school may be established under this Article
by creating a new school or by converting an existing public
school or attendance center to charter school status.
    Beginning on the effective date of this amendatory Act of the
93rd General Assembly, in all new applications submitted to the
State Board or a local school board to establish a charter
school in a city having a population exceeding 500,000,
operation of the charter school shall be limited to one campus.
The changes made to this Section by this amendatory Act of the
93rd General Assembly do not apply to charter schools existing
or approved on or before the effective date of this amendatory
Act.
    (c) A charter school shall be administered and governed by
its board of directors or other governing body in the manner
provided in its charter. The governing body of a charter school
shall be subject to the Freedom of Information Act and the Open
Meetings Act.
    (d) A charter school shall comply with all applicable
health and safety requirements applicable to public schools
under the laws of the State of Illinois.
    (e) Except as otherwise provided in the School Code, a
charter school shall not charge tuition; provided that a
charter school may charge reasonable fees for textbooks,
instructional materials, and student activities.
    (f) A charter school shall be responsible for the
management and operation of its fiscal affairs including, but
not limited to, the preparation of its budget. An audit of each
charter school's finances shall be conducted annually by an
outside, independent contractor retained by the charter
school.
    (g) A charter school shall comply with all provisions of
this Article and its charter. A charter school is exempt from
all other State laws and regulations in the School Code
governing public schools and local school board policies,
except the following:
        (1) Sections 10-21.9 and 34-18.5 of the School Code
    regarding criminal history records checks and checks of the
    Statewide Sex Offender Database of applicants for
    employment;
        (2) Sections 24-24 and 34-84A of the School Code
    regarding discipline of students;
        (3) The Local Governmental and Governmental Employees
    Tort Immunity Act;
        (4) Section 108.75 of the General Not For Profit
    Corporation Act of 1986 regarding indemnification of
    officers, directors, employees, and agents;
        (5) The Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act;
        (6) The Illinois School Student Records Act; and
        (7) Section 10-17a of the School Code regarding school
    report cards.
    (h) A charter school may negotiate and contract with a
school district, the governing body of a State college or
university or public community college, or any other public or
for-profit or nonprofit private entity for: (i) the use of a
school building and grounds or any other real property or
facilities that the charter school desires to use or convert
for use as a charter school site, (ii) the operation and
maintenance thereof, and (iii) the provision of any service,
activity, or undertaking that the charter school is required to
perform in order to carry out the terms of its charter.
However, a charter school that is established on or after the
effective date of this amendatory Act of the 93rd General
Assembly and that operates in a city having a population
exceeding 500,000 may not contract with a for-profit entity to
manage or operate the school during the period that commences
on the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 93rd
General Assembly and concludes at the end of the 2004-2005
school year. Except as provided in subsection (i) of this
Section, a school district may charge a charter school
reasonable rent for the use of the district's buildings,
grounds, and facilities. Any services for which a charter
school contracts with a school district shall be provided by
the district at cost. Any services for which a charter school
contracts with a local school board or with the governing body
of a State college or university or public community college
shall be provided by the public entity at cost.
    (i) In no event shall a charter school that is established
by converting an existing school or attendance center to
charter school status be required to pay rent for space that is
deemed available, as negotiated and provided in the charter
agreement, in school district facilities. However, all other
costs for the operation and maintenance of school district
facilities that are used by the charter school shall be subject
to negotiation between the charter school and the local school
board and shall be set forth in the charter.
    (j) A charter school may limit student enrollment by age or
grade level.
(Source: P.A. 93-3, eff. 4-16-03; 93-909, eff. 8-12-04.)
 
    (105 ILCS 5/34-18.5)  (from Ch. 122, par. 34-18.5)
    Sec. 34-18.5. Criminal history records checks and checks of
the Statewide Sex Offender Database.
    (a) Certified and noncertified applicants for employment
with the school district are required as a condition of
employment to authorize a fingerprint-based criminal history
records check to determine if such applicants have been
convicted of any of the enumerated criminal or drug offenses in
subsection (c) of this Section or have been convicted, within 7
years of the application for employment with the school
district, of any other felony under the laws of this State or
of any offense committed or attempted in any other state or
against the laws of the United States that, if committed or
attempted in this State, would have been punishable as a felony
under the laws of this State. Authorization for the check shall
be furnished by the applicant to the school district, except
that if the applicant is a substitute teacher seeking
employment in more than one school district, or a teacher
seeking concurrent part-time employment positions with more
than one school district (as a reading specialist, special
education teacher or otherwise), or an educational support
personnel employee seeking employment positions with more than
one district, any such district may require the applicant to
furnish authorization for the check to the regional
superintendent of the educational service region in which are
located the school districts in which the applicant is seeking
employment as a substitute or concurrent part-time teacher or
concurrent educational support personnel employee. Upon
receipt of this authorization, the school district or the
appropriate regional superintendent, as the case may be, shall
submit the applicant's name, sex, race, date of birth, social
security number, fingerprint images, and other identifiers, as
prescribed by the Department of State Police, to the
Department. The regional superintendent submitting the
requisite information to the Department of State Police shall
promptly notify the school districts in which the applicant is
seeking employment as a substitute or concurrent part-time
teacher or concurrent educational support personnel employee
that the check of the applicant has been requested. The
Department of State Police and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation shall furnish, pursuant to a fingerprint-based
criminal history records check, records of convictions, until
expunged, to the president of the school board for the school
district that requested the check, or to the regional
superintendent who requested the check. The Department shall
charge the school district or the appropriate regional
superintendent a fee for conducting such check, which fee shall
be deposited in the State Police Services Fund and shall not
exceed the cost of the inquiry; and the applicant shall not be
charged a fee for such check by the school district or by the
regional superintendent. Subject to appropriations for these
purposes, the State Superintendent of Education shall
reimburse the school district and regional superintendent for
fees paid to obtain criminal history records checks under this
Section.
    (a-5) The school district or regional superintendent shall
further perform a check of the Statewide Sex Offender Database,
as authorized by the Sex Offender and Child Murderer Community
Notification Law, for each applicant.
    (b) Any information concerning the record of convictions
obtained by the president of the board of education or the
regional superintendent shall be confidential and may only be
transmitted to the general superintendent of the school
district or his designee, the appropriate regional
superintendent if the check was requested by the board of
education for the school district, the presidents of the
appropriate board of education or school boards if the check
was requested from the Department of State Police by the
regional superintendent, the State Superintendent of
Education, the State Teacher Certification Board or any other
person necessary to the decision of hiring the applicant for
employment. A copy of the record of convictions obtained from
the Department of State Police shall be provided to the
applicant for employment. Upon the check of the Statewide Sex
Offender Database, the school district or regional
superintendent shall notify an applicant as to whether or not
the applicant has been identified in the Database as a sex
offender. If a check of an applicant for employment as a
substitute or concurrent part-time teacher or concurrent
educational support personnel employee in more than one school
district was requested by the regional superintendent, and the
Department of State Police upon a check ascertains that the
applicant has not been convicted of any of the enumerated
criminal or drug offenses in subsection (c) or has not been
convicted, within 7 years of the application for employment
with the school district, of any other felony under the laws of
this State or of any offense committed or attempted in any
other state or against the laws of the United States that, if
committed or attempted in this State, would have been
punishable as a felony under the laws of this State and so
notifies the regional superintendent and if the regional
superintendent upon a check ascertains that the applicant has
not been identified in the Sex Offender Database as a sex
offender, then the regional superintendent shall issue to the
applicant a certificate evidencing that as of the date
specified by the Department of State Police the applicant has
not been convicted of any of the enumerated criminal or drug
offenses in subsection (c) or has not been convicted, within 7
years of the application for employment with the school
district, of any other felony under the laws of this State or
of any offense committed or attempted in any other state or
against the laws of the United States that, if committed or
attempted in this State, would have been punishable as a felony
under the laws of this State and evidencing that as of the date
that the regional superintendent conducted a check of the
Statewide Sex Offender Database, the applicant has not been
identified in the Database as a sex offender. The school board
of any school district located in the educational service
region served by the regional superintendent who issues such a
certificate to an applicant for employment as a substitute or
concurrent part-time teacher or concurrent educational support
personnel employee in more than one such district may rely on
the certificate issued by the regional superintendent to that
applicant, or may initiate its own criminal history records
check of the applicant through the Department of State Police
and its own check of the Statewide Sex Offender Database as
provided in subsection (a). Any person who releases any
confidential information concerning any criminal convictions
of an applicant for employment shall be guilty of a Class A
misdemeanor, unless the release of such information is
authorized by this Section.
    (c) The board of education shall not knowingly employ a
person who has been convicted for committing attempted first
degree murder or for committing or attempting to commit first
degree murder or a Class X felony or any one or more of the
following offenses: (i) those defined in Sections 11-6, 11-9,
11-14, 11-15, 11-15.1, 11-16, 11-17, 11-18, 11-19, 11-19.1,
11-19.2, 11-20, 11-20.1, 11-21, 12-13, 12-14, 12-14.1, 12-15
and 12-16 of the Criminal Code of 1961; (ii) those defined in
the Cannabis Control Act, except those defined in Sections
4(a), 4(b) and 5(a) of that Act; (iii) those defined in the
Illinois Controlled Substances Act; and (iv) any offense
committed or attempted in any other state or against the laws
of the United States, which if committed or attempted in this
State, would have been punishable as one or more of the
foregoing offenses. Further, the board of education shall not
knowingly employ a person who has been found to be the
perpetrator of sexual or physical abuse of any minor under 18
years of age pursuant to proceedings under Article II of the
Juvenile Court Act of 1987.
    (d) The board of education shall not knowingly employ a
person for whom a criminal history records check and a
Statewide Sex Offender Database check has not been initiated.
    (e) Upon receipt of the record of a conviction of or a
finding of child abuse by a holder of any certificate issued
pursuant to Article 21 or Section 34-8.1 or 34-83 of the School
Code, the board of education or the State Superintendent of
Education shall initiate the certificate suspension and
revocation proceedings authorized by law.
    (f) After March 19, 1990, the provisions of this Section
shall apply to all employees of persons or firms holding
contracts with any school district including, but not limited
to, food service workers, school bus drivers and other
transportation employees, who have direct, daily contact with
the pupils of any school in such district. For purposes of
criminal history records checks and checks of the Statewide Sex
Offender Database on employees of persons or firms holding
contracts with more than one school district and assigned to
more than one school district, the regional superintendent of
the educational service region in which the contracting school
districts are located may, at the request of any such school
district, be responsible for receiving the authorization for a
criminal history records check prepared by each such employee
and submitting the same to the Department of State Police and
for conducting a check of the Statewide Sex Offender Database
for each employee. Any information concerning the record of
conviction and identification as a sex offender of any such
employee obtained by the regional superintendent shall be
promptly reported to the president of the appropriate school
board or school boards.
(Source: P.A. 93-418, eff. 1-1-04; 93-909, eff. 8-12-04.)
 
    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.