Rep. Laura Faver Dias

Amends the Illinois Secure Choice Savings Program Act. Provides that the accounts established under the Secure Choice Savings Program shall be IRAs, into which enrollees contribute funds that are invested in investment options established by the Illinois Secure Choice Savings Board. Provides that a separate account shall be established for each enrollee and the accounts shall be owned by the enrollee. Provides that the savings accounts established under the Program shall be portable and allow for an enrollee to make contributions from multiple employers into a single account. Provides that an enrollee in the Program may have both a Roth IRA and a Traditional IRA through the Program. Provides that the Board shall have the duty to assess the feasibility of agreements with other governmental entities, including other states and their agencies and instrumentalities, to achieve greater economies of scale through shared resources and to enter into those agreements if determined to be beneficial. Provides that an employer who fails without reasonable cause to enroll an employee in the Program within the time provided and fails to remit their contributions (rather than fails without reasonable cause to enroll an employee in the Program within the time provided) shall be subject to a penalty. Makes changes in provisions concerning employer and employee information packets. Effective immediately.

Amends the Environmental Protection Act. Provides that no person shall conduct a carbon sequestration activity within a sequestration facility that overlies, underlies, or passes through a sole-source aquifer. Defines "sole-source aquifer". Effective immediately.

Amends the Fair Patient Billing Act. Requires that a hospital's obligation to patients under the Act shall cover all health care services, including, but not limited to, on-site health care services provided by a non-hospital entity. Provides that, in the event the hospital outsources health care services to an individual or entity that is separate from the hospital within the hospital facility or otherwise on the hospital site, the hospital's obligations under the Act continue as though the hospital had provided the health care services. Requires a hospital to ensure that the individual or entity contracted to provide health care services agrees in writing to operate under the hospital's financial assistance policy, screening obligations, collections provisions, and all other provisions of the Act, and requires a hospital to ensure that a hospital agent or on-site provider of outsourced health care services complies with the Act. Amends the Hospital Uninsured Patient Discount Act to establish similar requirements for hospitals. Provides that a hospital shall include charges from the third-party individual or entity when calculating the charge, discount, or collectible amount applicable under the Act.

Amends the Illinois Insurance Code. Provides that a group or individual policy of accident and health insurance or a managed care plan that is amended, delivered, issued, or renewed after January 1, 2027 shall provide coverage for disposable incontinence supplies for any person with a disability. Amends the State Employees Group Insurance Act of 1971, the Counties Code, the Illinois Municipal Code, the School Code, the Health Maintenance Organization Act, the Limited Health Service Organization Act, and the Voluntary Health Services Plans Act to require coverage under those provisions.

Amends the Educator Licensure Article of the School Code. Adds 5 administrative or faculty members of community colleges to the State Educator Preparation and Licensure Board. For a Professional Educator License: provides that the requirements to successfully complete specified coursework are only required until July 1, 2027 or the date that the revised test for a particular content area is implemented, whichever is later; and exempts persons seeking a school support personnel or chief school business official endorsement from the requirement that a person must successfully complete specified coursework. Requires, by July 1, 2027, the State Superintendent of Education to begin incorporating specified topics into revised examinations for individuals seeking a Professional Educator License endorsed in teaching or administration, excluding a chief school business official endorsement. Exempts, for educator licenses, applicants seeking a school support personnel endorsement who hold an active and valid professional license in the same subject matter as the endorsement sought from being required to pass a test of content area knowledge for each area of endorsement for which there is an applicable test. Creates the Teacher Performance Assessment Advisory Committee to aid in operationalizing and creating a pilot, State-developed, teacher performance assessment. Establishes the Paraprofessional to Teacher Pathway Program to provide an expedited pathway for paraprofessionals to earn a Professional Educator License in a specific content area. Sets forth the Program criteria, the requirements for individuals for entry into the Program, and the adoption of rules by the State Board of Education. Provides that an institution of higher education approved to offer educator preparation programs may enter into a partnership agreement with a community college to offer an approved educator preparation program leading to educator licensure for individuals who already hold a bachelor's degree. Makes other changes.

Amends the Unified Code of Corrections. Provides that all institutions and facilities of the Department of Corrections shall permit every committed person to receive the original, physical copy of any mail addressed to the committed person that the committed person is entitled and allowed to receive. Provides that any exceptions to the requirements of this provision must be based on evidence that complying with the requirements of this provision present a clear and present danger to the health and safety of the correctional employees or committed persons in the correctional institution or facility. Provides that the evidence must include evidence of contraband being sent through the mail, data on the number of mail items containing contraband, test results of mail tested due to suspicion of mail containing drugs, data on where inside a correctional institution or facility contraband has been found, and the method of entry of contraband into the correctional institution or facility. Provides that the evidence must be made available to the public upon request. Provides that no committed person shall be denied, or have communications limited, with an outside support person, whether by phone, mail, video, or in person visitation, as a result of a disciplinary sanction or grade level of the infraction. Provides that committed persons may contact outside supports via phone, mail, or electronic message free of charge. Defines "original, physical copy".

Amends the Medical Assistance Article of the Illinois Public Aid Code. Requires the Department of Healthcare and Family Services to file an amendment to the Home and Community-Based Services Waiver Program for Adults with Developmental Disabilities that removes the 5 hour per day billing maximums placed on providers of community day services. The amendment shall not modify monthly and yearly billing maximums for providers of community day services. Effective January 1, 2026.

Amends the School Code. Allows, if an assessment is determined to be non-uniform, a provisional in-state educator endorsement on an Educator License with Stipulations to be issued to a candidate who has completed an Illinois-approved educator preparation program at an Illinois institution of higher education and who has not successfully completed an applicable content area test but who: holds at least a bachelor's degree; has completed an approved educator preparation program at an Illinois institution; has passed an evidence-based assessment of teacher effectiveness; and has attempted an applicable content area test that has been determined to be non-uniform and has not attempted any uniform content area tests. Provides that the process by which the State Board of Education evaluates content area tests shall be public information and shall be made available on the website of the State Board. Requires the State Board to evaluate each content area test after it has been administered for at least 10 months, but not more than 12 months, and shall determine that a content test is non-uniform. Provides that if a content test is determined to be non-uniform, the State Board shall: convene one or more committees to review the content, bias, and passing score requirements of that content test and recommend changes to improve uniformity; offer the most recent uniform content area test for the same license or endorsement as an option until the new assessment is determined to be uniform; provide an opportunity to attempt the most recent uniform content area test for the same license or endorsement to candidates who attempted but did not pass the most recent version of the content area test; and implement a process by which candidates who attempted but did not pass the content test may apply for provisional licensure. Provides that if the State Board finds that the content area test forms available as of January 1, 2025 are not uniform in the level of difficulty as compared to previous forms of those exams, any candidate for licensure who attempted any content area test in the form that was available as of January 1, 2025, and whose best scores in each subsection of the same content area exam, taken across multiple attempts on the same form of the exam, equal or exceed the passing score for that content area exam as of January 1, 2025, shall be determined to have passed that content area exam.

Amends the Illinois Freedom to Work Act. Provides that any covenant not to compete or covenant not to solicit entered into after the effective date of the amendatory Act shall not be enforceable with respect to the provision of reproductive health care or maternity care by a health care professional in the State if the enforcement of the covenant not to compete or covenant not to solicit is likely to reduce the availability of reproductive health care or maternity care. Provides that in an action to enforce a covenant not to compete or covenant not to solicit entered into after the effective date of the amendatory Act, a party seeking to enforce the covenant not to compete or covenant not to solicit has the burden of proving that it will not reduce the availability of reproductive health care or maternity care in the State. Defines terms. Effective immediately.

Creates the Honorable Funerals for First Responders Act. Provides that a first responder killed in the line of duty shall receive an honorable funeral. Defines "honorable funeral" as a funeral that respects the wishes of the deceased first responder and the family of the deceased first responder and includes religious observances desired by the deceased first responder and the family of the deceased first responder. Provides that an elected official may not attend the funeral of a first responder killed in the line of duty if the elected official knows, or has reason to know, that the family of the first responder killed in the line of duty does not wish the elected official to attend the funeral. Provides that in no case shall any elected official be required to attend the funeral of a first responder killed in the line of duty. Provides that the family of the first responder killed in the line of duty shall have sole discretion over which elected official may attend the funeral of a first responder killed in the line of duty. Provides that, before an elected official attends the funeral of a first responder killed in the line of duty, the elected official must make reasonable efforts to learn if the family of the first responder killed in the line of duty would like the elected official to attend the funeral. Defines other terms.