Public Act 096-1302
 
SB3543 EnrolledLRB096 20581 KTG 36479 b

    AN ACT concerning children.
 
    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
 
    Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the
Afterschool Youth Development Project Act.
 
    Section 5. Purpose and findings. The General Assembly
declares that it is the policy of this State to provide all
young people between the ages of 6 and 19 with access to
quality afterschool programs through a State commitment to
sufficient and sustainable funding for programs that promote
positive youth development. The need for this policy is based
on a series of facts:
    The General Assembly finds that youth who are engaged in
quality afterschool activities are more likely to succeed in
academics, employment, and civic affairs than youth who do not
participate in afterschool activities. Youth with high levels
of participation in quality afterschool programs miss fewer
days of school, have lower drop-out rates, and higher rates of
graduation.
    The General Assembly also finds that youth in Illinois face
greater barriers to success than ever before:
        (1) Statewide demand for quality afterschool
    activities far outpaces the current supply, with shortfall
    estimates between 60 and 70 percent.
        (2) Illinois youth spend fewer hours in school than in
    most other states and approximately 45% of all children in
    grades K-12 are either responsible for themselves or are in
    the care of a sibling during afterschool hours.
        (3) On school days, the hours between 3:00 p.m. and
    6:00 p.m. are the peak hours for juvenile crime and
    experimentation with drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, and sex.
    The General Assembly also finds that the State of Illinois,
having demonstrated national leadership in advancing toward
universal early childhood education, must also expand youth
development programming in order to realize the full, continued
benefits of public investment in Illinois' young people.
    The policy established by this Act will be developed
through an afterschool demonstration program the results of
which will be used to establish standards and policies to
design and fund a statewide system of quality afterschool
programs accessible to all youth between the ages of 6 and 19
that promote positive outcomes in such areas as education,
employment, and civic success.
 
    Section 10. Definitions. As used in this Act:
    "Afterschool program" means positive youth development
activities provided to youth between the ages of 6 and 19
during the hours before or after school, during summer recess
from school, or during the weekends. These activities may
include, but are not limited to, the following activity areas:
academic support; arts, music, sports, cultural enrichment,
and other recreation; health promotion and diseases
prevention; life skills and work and career development; and
youth leadership development. For the purposes of this Act,
"afterschool program" also means a program funded under the
Afterschool Demonstration Program.
    "Demonstration" or "Demonstration Program" means the
Afterschool Demonstration Program as established under this
Act.
    "Council" means the Illinois Youth Development Council.
    "Community advisory group" means a group of key local
stakeholders convened to help ensure effective program
delivery through increased collaboration. This group is
required as a condition of participating in the demonstration
period.
 
    Section 15. Illinois Youth Development Council.
    (a) Creation. In order to effectively achieve the policy
established in this Act, the Illinois Youth Development Council
shall be created. The purpose of the Council is to provide
oversight and coordination to the State's public funds
currently invested to support positive youth development
programs and activities and to set systemwide policies and
priorities to accomplish the following 5 major objectives: (i)
set afterschool program expansion priorities, such as
addressing gaps in programming for specific ages and
populations; (ii) create outcome measures and require all
afterschool programs to be evaluated to ensure that outcomes
are being met; (iii) oversee the establishment of a statewide
program improvement system that provides technical assistance
and capacity building to increase program participation and
quality systemwide; (iv) monitor and assess afterschool
program quality through outcome measures; and (v) establish
State policy to support the attainment of outcomes. The Council
shall be created within the Department of Human Services.
    (b) Governance. The Illinois Youth Development Council
shall reflect the regional, racial, socioeconomic, and
cultural diversity of the State to ensure representation of the
needs of all Illinois youth. The Council shall be composed of
no less than 28 and no more than 32 members. The Council may
establish a defined length of term for membership on the
Council.
        (1) Membership. The Council shall include
    representation from both public and private organizations
    comprised of the following:
            (A) Four members of the General Assembly: one
        appointed by the President of the Senate, one appointed
        by the Minority Leader of the Senate, one appointed by
        the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and one
        appointed by the Minority Leader of the House of
        Representatives.
            (B) The chief administrators of the following
        State agencies: the Department of Human Services; the
        Illinois State Board of Education; the Department of
        Children and Family Services; the Department of Public
        Health; the Department of Juvenile Justice; the
        Department of Healthcare and Family Services; the
        Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity; the
        Illinois Board of Higher Education; and the Illinois
        Community College Board.
            (C) The Chair of the Illinois Workforce Investment
        Board and the Executive Director of the Illinois
        Violence Prevention Authority.
        The following Council members shall be appointed by the
    Governor:
            (D) Two officials from a unit of local government.
            (E) At least 3 representatives of direct youth
        service providers and faith-based providers.
            (F) Three young people who are between the ages of
        16 and 21 and who are members of the Youth Advisory
        Group as established in paragraph (2) of this
        subsection.
            (G) Two parents of children between the ages of 6
        and 19.
            (H) One academic researcher in the field of youth
        development.
            (I) Additional public members that include local
        government stakeholders and nongovernmental
        stakeholders with an interest in youth development and
        afterschool programs, including representation from
        the following private sector fields and
        constituencies: child and youth advocacy; children and
        youth with special needs; child and adolescent health;
        business; and law enforcement.
        Persons may be nominated by organizations representing
    the fields outlined in this Section. The Governor shall
    designate one of the Council members who is a nongovernment
    stakeholder to serve as co-chairperson. The Council shall
    create a subcommittee of additional direct youth service
    providers as well as other subcommittees as deemed
    necessary.
        (2) Youth Advisory Group. To ensure that the Council is
    responsive to the needs and priorities of Illinois' young
    people, the Council shall establish an independent Youth
    Advisory Group, which shall be composed of a diverse body
    of 15 youths between the ages of 14 and 19 from across the
    State. Members that surpass the age of 19 while serving on
    the Youth Advisory Group may complete the term of the
    appointment. The Youth Advisory Group shall be charged
    with: (i) presenting recommendations to the Council 4 times
    per year on issues related to afterschool and youth
    development programming and policy; and (ii) reviewing key
    programmatic, funding, and policy decisions made by the
    Council. To develop priorities and recommendations, the
    Youth Advisory Group may engage students from across the
    State via focus groups, on-line surveys, and other means.
    The Youth Advisory Group shall be administered by the
    Department of Human Services and facilitated by an
    independent, established youth organization with expertise
    in youth civic engagement. This youth civic engagement
    organization shall administer the application requirements
    and process and shall nominate 30 youth. The Department of
    Human Services shall select 15 of the nominees for the
    Youth Advisory Group, 3 of whom shall serve on the Council.
    (c) Activities. The major objectives of the Council shall
be accomplished through the following activities:
        (1) Publishing an annual plan that sets system goals
    for Illinois' afterschool funding that include key
    indicators, performance standards, and outcome measures
    and that outlines funding evaluation and reporting
    requirements.
        (2) Developing and maintaining a system and processes
    to collect and report consistent program and outcome data
    on all afterschool programs funded by State and local
    government.
        (3) Developing linkages between afterschool data
    systems and other statewide youth program outcome data
    systems (e.g. schools, post-secondary education, juvenile
    justice, etc.).
        (4) Developing procedures for implementing an
    evaluation of the statewide system of program providers,
    including programs established by this Act.
        (5) Reviewing evaluation results and data reports to
    inform future investments and allocations and to shape
    State policy.
        (6) Developing technical assistance and
    capacity-building infrastructure and ensuring appropriate
    workforce development strategies across agencies for those
    who will be working in afterschool programs.
        (7) Reviewing and making public recommendations to the
    Governor and the General Assembly with respect to the
    budgets for State youth services to ensure the adequacy of
    those budgets and alignment to system goals outlined in the
    plan described in paragraph (1) of this subsection.
        (8) Developing and overseeing execution of a research
    agenda to inform future program planning.
        (9) Providing strategic advice to other State
    agencies, the Illinois General Assembly, and Illinois'
    Constitutional Officers on afterschool-related activities
    statewide.
        (10) Approving awards of grants to demonstration
    projects as outlined in Section 20 of this Act.
    (d) Accountability. The Council shall annually report to
the Governor and the General Assembly on the Council's progress
towards its goals and objectives. The Department of Human
Services shall provide resources to the Council, including
administrative services and data collection and shall be
responsible for conducting procurement processes required by
the Act. The Department may contract with vendors to provide
all or a portion of any necessary resources.
 
    Section 20. Afterschool Demonstration Program.
    (a) Program. The Department of Human Services, in
coordination with the Council, shall establish and administer a
3-year statewide, quality Afterschool Demonstration Program
with an evaluation and outcome-based expansion model. The
ultimate goal of the Demonstration shall be to develop and
evaluate the costs, impact, and quality outcomes of afterschool
programs in order to establish an effective expansion toward
universal access.
    (b) Eligible activity areas. Afterschool programs created
under the Demonstration Program shall serve youths in Illinois
by promoting one or more of the following:
        (1) Academic support activities, including but not
    limited to remediation, tutoring, homework assistance,
    advocacy with teachers, college preparatory guidance,
    college tours, application assistance, and college
    counseling.
        (2) Arts, music, sports, recreation, and cultural
    enrichment, including structured, ongoing activities such
    as theatre groups, development of exhibits, graphic
    design, cultural activities, and sports and athletic
    teams.
        (3) Health promotion and disease prevention, including
    activities and tools for increasing knowledge and practice
    of healthy behavior, drug, alcohol, tobacco and pregnancy
    prevention, conflict resolution, and violence prevention.
        (4) Life skills and work and career development
    activities that prepare youth for a successful transition
    to the workplace, including career awareness, job fairs,
    career exploration, job shadowing, work readiness skills,
    interview skills, resume building and work experience, and
    paid internships and summer jobs.
        (5) Youth leadership development activities aimed at
    increasing youths' communication skills and ability to
    help a group make decisions, to facilitate or lead a group
    discussion, and to initiate and direct projects involving
    other people including civic engagement, service learning,
    and other activities that promote youth leadership.
    (c) Eligible entities. Currently funded or new entities,
including but not limited to the following, shall be eligible
to apply for funding:
        (1) Schools or school districts.
        (2) Community-based organizations.
        (3) Faith-based organizations.
        (4) Park districts.
        (5) Libraries.
        (6) Cultural institutions.
    Priority for participation in the Demonstration Program
shall be given to entities with experience in providing
afterschool programs in Illinois.
    (d) Program criteria. New or existing applicants shall
demonstrate the capacity to achieve the goals of this Act and
meet the deadlines set forth by the Council through:
        (1) The promotion of the development of those items
    outlined in subsection (b) of this Section.
        (2) Evidence of community need and collaboration to
    avoid duplicating or supplanting existing services, which
    shall be shown through the creation of or reliance on an
    appropriate, existing community advisory group composed of
    a diverse makeup of members that may include, but is not
    limited to, educators, afterschool providers, local
    government officials, local business owners, parents, and
    youth.
        (3) Cost-effective methods that will maximize the
    impact of the total dollar amount of the award.
    (e) Expansion. Three years from the award of the first
dollars, initial findings of an outcome evaluation of the
Demonstration, conducted by an independent evaluator as
described in subsection (d) of Section 25 of this Act, shall be
reported to the Governor, the General Assembly, the Council,
and the Youth Advisory Group with a hearing scheduled before
the appropriate committees of the House and Senate for the
purpose of establishing an effective expansion toward
universal access. A positive outcome evaluation, whereby
performance outcomes determined by the Council are met, shall
trigger a phased-in expansion toward full implementation.
 
    Section 25. Effectiveness of afterschool programs.
    (a) Program standards. Research has shown that
high-performing youth programs demonstrate shared features of
program quality. The Council shall establish a universal
framework of youth development program standards that commonly
define measurable indicators of program quality across the
diverse array of eligible demonstration program activities.
    (b) Evaluation and monitoring. Afterschool programs shall
be held accountable to universal program quality standards as
adopted by the Council. Data informing performance against
these standards shall be monitored and collected by the
Department of Human Services. Each afterschool program, in
coordination with the corresponding community advisory group,
shall also assess needs and gaps relative to addressing outcome
goals.
    (c) Capacity-building supports. A statewide program
quality improvement system shall be established by the Council
utilizing a qualified third party to provide assessment,
coaching, technical assistance, and system and professional
development. Provided supports shall first target those
afterschool programs created under the Demonstration with the
ultimate goal of expansion to support the larger statewide
system of youth development program providers.
    (d) Demonstration outcome evaluation. An evaluation of the
Demonstration shall be conducted by a third-party evaluator or
evaluators selected through a competitive request for
proposals (RFP) process. The purpose of the evaluation is to
determine how well the Demonstration Program meets the cost,
impact, and quality outcome goals established by the Council.
Initial findings shall be reported to the Council, the
Governor, and the General Assembly within 3 years from the
award of the first dollars and shall be the primary determining
evidence to trigger expansion as described in subsection (e) of
Section 20 of this Act.
 
    Section 30. Funding. The creation and establishment of the
Council, the Youth Advisory Group, and the Afterschool
Demonstration Program shall be subject to appropriations,
however the Department of Human Services shall be permitted to
accept private funding or private resources at any time to
implement this Act.
 
    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.