Rep. Maurice West

Supports home-visiting and Early Intervention programs as an essential component of our State's multifaceted approach to the opioid crisis, helping remediate many of its corrosive impacts on young children, their parents, and families, while also assisting efforts at preventing children from future struggles with substance use disorders of their own. Affirms these vital birth-to-3 services are a top priority for increased public resources, to strengthen their quality and extend their reach to more of the children, parents, and families who could benefit from them, particularly in communities of greatest need and those hit hardest by the opioid epidemic. Affirms home-visiting and Early Intervention services are an appropriate and necessary use for some of the hundreds of millions of funding coming to Illinois from the settlement of lawsuits against opioid makers and distributors, initiatives that can help meet the settlements' stated aims of boosting opioid remediation, treatment, and prevention.

Provides background information. Appropriates specified amounts to the Department of Public Health for grants, expenses, and administrative costs of programs relating to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and human immunodeficiency virus; the Getting to Zero-Illinois plan to end the HIV epidemic by 2030; the prevention, screening, and treatment services to address sexually transmitted infection cases; and the PrEP4Illinois Program to provide client navigation for pre-exposure prophylaxis services and medication access. Contains other provisions. Effective July 1, 2023.

Appropriates $15,000,000 from the General Revenue Fund to the Illinois Student Assistance Commission for costs associated with the Human Services Professional Loan Repayment Program Act. Effective July 1, 2023.

Appropriates $5,000,000 from the General Revenue Fund to the Department of Human Services for the purpose of making a grant to Laureus Sport for Good Foundation USA for program and operating expenses for youth development-based sports initiatives. Effective July 1, 2023.

Amends the Illinois Procurement Code. Deletes provision requiring Central Management Services to prepare and submit the total quantity of annual reports printed, the total cost, and the cost per copy and the cost per page of the annual report of the State agency printed during the calendar year covered by the report. Amends the Use Tax Act, Service Occupation Tax Act, Retailers' Occupation Tax Act and the State Finance Act. Deletes obsolete funding. Amends the Southwestern Illinois Metropolitan and Regional Planning Act. Removes the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity from the Act. Amends the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Law of the Civil Administrative Code of Illinois, Unified Code of Corrections, Workers' Compensation Act. Repeals obsolete mandates. Amends the Workers' Compensation Act. Provides that in preparing the roster of approved certified independent arbitrators, the Chairman shall seek the advice and recommendation of the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission or the Workers' Compensation Advisory Board at his or her discretion. Repeals obsolete mandate. Effective immediately.

Amends the Counties Code. Provides that, in determining the lowest responsible bidder, a county board of a county with fewer than 2,000,000 inhabitants shall for certain procurements take into consideration, among other things, the bidder's active participation in an apprenticeship program registered with the United States Department of Labor.

Amends the Illinois State Police Law of the Civil Administrative Code of Illinois. Adds duties to various Divisions of the Illinois State Police. Amends the State Finance Act. Abolishes the State Police Streetgang-Related Crime Fund. Provides for, on the effective date of the amendatory Act, or as soon thereafter as practical, the transfer of the remaining balance from the State Police Streetgang-Related Crime Fund to the State Police Operations Assistance Fund. Amends the Intergovernmental Missing Child Recovery Act of 1984. Provides that the Illinois State Police's quality control program shall assess (rather than monitor) the timeliness of entries of missing children reports into LEADS and conduct performance audits of all entering agencies. Amends the School Code. Provides that, upon receipt of any written, electronic, or verbal report from any school personnel regarding a verified incident involving a firearm in a school or on school owned or leased property, including any conveyance owned, leased, or used by the school for the transport of students or school personnel, the local law enforcement authorities shall report all such firearm-related incidents occurring in a school or on school property to the Illinois State Police (rather than the superintendent or his or her designee reporting to the Illinois State Police) in a form, manner, and frequency as prescribed by the Illinois State Police. Amends the Sex Offender Registration Act. Provides for, on the effective date of the amendatory Act, or as soon thereafter as practical, the transfer of the remaining balance from the Sex Offender Investigation Fund to the Offender Registration Fund. Provides that upon completion of the transfers, the Sex Offender Investigation Fund is dissolved, and any future deposits into the Sex Offender Investigation Fund and any outstanding obligations or liabilities of the Sex Offender Investigation Fund pass to the Offender Registration Fund. Effective January 1, 2024, with some provisions concerning funds transfers effective immediately.

Creates the Respond, Innovate, Succeed, and Empower Act. Requires a public institution of higher education to adopt a policy that makes certain documentation submitted by an enrolled or admitted student sufficient to establish that the student is an individual with a disability. Requires the policy to be transparent and explicit regarding information about the process by which the public institution of higher education determines eligibility for accommodations for an individual with a disability. Provides that each public institution of higher education shall disseminate such information to students, parents, and faculty in accessible formats and make the information readily available on a public website of the institution. Allows a public institution of higher education to establish less burdensome criteria to establish whether an enrolled or admitted student is an individual with a disability. Requires a public institution of higher education to engage in an interactive process to establish a reasonable accommodation for an individual pursuant to the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

Creates the Illinois Underground Railroad Task Force Act. Creates the Illinois Underground Railroad Task Force. Provides that the Task Force shall develop a statewide plan to connect existing local projects and new projects to create a cohesive statewide history of the Underground Railroad in Illinois while creating new educational and tourism opportunities for the State. Establishes the membership of the Task Force. Provides that the members of the Task Force shall serve without compensation. Provides that the Department of Natural Resources shall provide administrative and technical support to the Task Force. Provides that all members of the Task Force shall be appointed within 30 days after the effective date of the Act. Provides that the Task Force shall review available research, existing infrastructure and projects, best practices, and effective interventions to formulate recommendations. Provides that the Task Force shall prepare a report detailing the Task Force's findings and recommendations and needed resources. Provides that the Task Force shall submit a report of its findings and recommendations to the General Assembly and the Governor on or before July 1, 2024. Provides that the Task Force is dissolved, and the Act is repealed, on January 1, 2025.

Amends the Children and Family Services Act. In the definition of "child welfare services", provides that one of the purposes of the Department of Children and Family Services is to place children in suitable permanent family arrangements (rather than in suitable adoptive homes), in cases where restoration to the biological family is not safe, possible, or appropriate. Removes language providing that one of the purposes of the Department's child welfare services is to assure safe and adequate care of children away from their homes, in cases where the child cannot be returned home or cannot be placed for adoption. Repeals a provision requiring the Department of Children and Family Services to establish the Governor's Youth Services Initiative.