Amends the Higher Education Student Assistance Act and the Illinois Vehicle Code. Provides that the Illinois Student Assistance Commission shall combine best practices and methods and programmatic functions of the Illinois Future Teacher Corps Program and the Golden Apple Foundation for Excellence in Teaching's Golden Apple Scholars of Illinois Program into one program, to be known as the Golden Apple Scholars of Illinois Program and managed by the Golden Apple Foundation for Excellence in Teaching. Provides that this consolidated program shall be fully operational before July 1, 2012 and that Fiscal Year 2012 shall be the last year that Illinois Future Teacher Corps scholarships are available. Provides for a transition period. Requires the Commission to transfer funding from the Illinois Future Teacher Corps Program to the Golden Apple Foundation for Excellence in Teaching. Provides that following the completion of the transition of funding, all applications for scholarship assistance shall be in a form determined by the Golden Apple Foundation for Excellence in Teaching. Provides that the eligibility requirements apply only to Illinois Future Teacher Corps scholarships. Makes other changes. Effective immediately.
Sponsored bills
Amends the School Code. Requires every public elementary school and high school to include in its curriculum a unit of instruction studying the events related to the forceful removal and illegal deportation of almost 2,000,000 Mexican-American U.S. citizens during the Great Depression, beginning in 1929 and ending in the mid-1940's. Allows the State Superintendent of Education to prepare and make available to all school boards instructional materials. Provides that each school board shall itself determine the minimum amount of instruction time that shall qualify as a unit of instruction. Effective January 1, 2010.
Amends the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act and the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act. Establishes a time frame within which an initial agreement must be reached or conciliation and arbitration attempted.
Amends the Criminal Code of 1961. Provides that in addition to any criminal penalties imposed for criminal damage to property, if a person is convicted of or placed on supervision for knowingly damaging or destroying crops of another, including crops intended for personal, commercial, research, or developmental purposes, the person is liable in a civil action to the owner of any crops damaged or destroyed for money damages up to twice the market value of the crops damaged or destroyed. Effective July 1, 2009.
Amends the School Code. Adds contracts providing for the transportation of pupils with special needs or disabilities to the list of exceptions to the requirement that certain contracts be awarded to the lowest responsible bidder. Provides that these contracts must be advertised in the same manner as competitive bids and awarded by first considering the bidder or bidders most able to provide safety and comfort for the pupils with special needs or disabilities, stability of service, and any other factors set forth in the request for proposal regarding quality of service, and then price.
Amends the School Code to provide that principals hired on or after July 1, 2008 may participate in a second year of mentoring through the new principal mentoring program if it is determined by the State Superintendent of Education that sufficient funding exists for such participation. Removes a provision requiring the completion of a survey of progress. Requires the State Superintendent to annually determine whether appropriations are likely to be sufficient to require operation of the mentoring program for the coming year. Provides that the master principal designation program includes mentoring master level principals. Provides that the State Board of Education shall select, through a competitive process, statewide entities to receive funds appropriated for the purpose of providing a program (instead of the State Board adopting rules for entities seeking to provide a program). Provides that "master principal designation program" shall also be known as the Illinois Distinguished Principal Leadership Institute. Effective immediately.
Amends the Fire Protection District Act. Provides that, until January 1, 2010, the fee charged to persons and entities that are not residents of the fire protection district for the cost of providing services shall not exceed $250 per vehicle (now, $125) and shall not exceed $70 per hour per firefighter (now, $35 per hour per firefighter). Provides that those amounts shall be adjusted annually to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index during the previous 12-month period. Effective immediately.
Amends the School Code. Requires each school superintendent to create a program to ensure that students attending the schools that he or she manages cannot access those schools' grounds for at least 12 hours after those grounds are treated with a lawn care product. Requires each district superintendent to appoint a Lawn Care Coordinator whose duty it shall be (i) to implement that program, (ii) to supervise the provision of notice under subdivision (f)(2) of Section 3 of the Lawn Care Products Application and Notice Act, and (3) if the district adopts a pesticide-free turf care program, to supervise that program. Amends the Lawn Care Products Application and Notice Act. Requires applicators for hire to provide additional types of information to customers. Requires the owners or operators of day care centers to provide parents with one of two types of notice before applying pesticide or having pesticide applied to day center grounds (now, only school districts must provide that notice). Requires the Illinois Department of Public Health to inform school boards and the owners and operators of day care centers about these requirements. Requires the Illinois Department of Public Health to report violations to the Department of Agriculture for enforcement. Effective immediately.
Amends the Residential Real Property Disclosure Act. Requires the seller of the property to disclose whether the property has been used for the manufacture of methamphetamine. Effective immediately.
Amends the Children with Disabilities Article of the School Code. With respect to the special education personnel reimbursement to school districts, provides that the reimbursement is for staff working on behalf of certain children (instead of for those children), for certificated employees who work with or on behalf of students with disabilities full time (instead of teachers, professional workers, directors, and school psychologists), and for non-certified employees (instead of necessary non-certified employees). Effective immediately.