Sen. Mike Simmons-Gessesse

Amends the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Administrative Act. Requires the Department of Human Services to establish reimbursement rates that build toward livable wages for front-line personnel in residential and day programs and service coordination agencies serving persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Provides that for community-based providers serving persons with intellectual or developmental disabilities, subject to federal approval, the rates taking effect for services delivered on or after July 1, 2024 shall be increased sufficiently to: (i) provide a minimum $3.00 per hour wage increase over the wages in effect on June 30, 2024 for front-line personnel; and (ii) provide wages for all other residential non-executive direct care staff, excluding direct support professionals, at the U.S. Department of Labor's average wage as defined, by rule, by the Department. Amends the Illinois Public Aid Code. Provides that for ID/DD facilities and MC/DD facilities, the rates taking effect for services delivered on or after July 1, 2024, shall be increased sufficiently to: (i) provide a minimum $3.00 per hour wage increase over the wages in effect on June 30, 2024 for front-line personnel; and (ii) provide wages for all other residential non-executive direct care staff, excluding direct support professionals, at the U.S. Department of Labor's average wage as defined, by rule, by the Department. Requires the same increase for front-line personnel employed at community-based providers serving persons with intellectual or developmental disabilities. Amends the Illinois Administrative Procedure Act. Grants the Departments of Human Services and Healthcare and Family Services emergency rulemaking authority. Effective immediately.

Amends the Illinois Insurance Code. Provides that insurers shall cover all services for pregnancy, postpartum, and newborn care that are rendered by perinatal doulas or licensed certified professional midwives, including home births, home visits, and support during labor, abortion, or miscarriage. Provides that the required coverage includes the necessary equipment and medical supplies for a home birth. Provides that coverage for pregnancy, postpartum, and newborn care shall include home visits by lactation consultants and the purchase of breast pumps and breast pump supplies, including such breast pumps, breast pump supplies, breastfeeding supplies, and feeding aids as recommended by the lactation consultant. Provides that coverage for postpartum services shall apply for at least one year after birth. Provides that certain pregnancy and postpartum coverage shall be provided without cost-sharing requirements. Amends the Medical Assistance Article of the Illinois Public Aid Code. Provides that post-parturition care benefits shall not be subject to any cost-sharing requirement. Provides that the medical assistance program shall cover home visits for lactation counseling and support services. Provides that the medical assistance program shall cover counselor-recommended or provider-recommended breast pumps as well as breast pump supplies, breastfeeding supplies, and feeding aids. Provides that nothing in the provisions shall limit the number of lactation encounters, visits, or services; breast pumps; breast pump supplies; breastfeeding supplies; or feeding aids a beneficiary is entitled to receive under the program. Makes other changes. Effective January 1, 2026.

Amends the Adult Protective Services Act. Expands the list of mandated reporters under the Act to include broker-dealers and officers and employees of financial institutions. Provides that financial exploitation of an adult with disabilities or a person aged 60 or older occurs when a person or entity (i) takes, secretes, appropriates, obtains, or retains real or personal property of an eligible adult for a wrongful use or with intent to defraud, or both; (ii) assists in taking, secreting, appropriating, obtaining, or retaining real or personal property of an eligible adult for a wrongful use or with intent to defraud, or both; (iii) knowingly aids and abets in the taking, secreting, appropriating, obtaining, or retaining of real or personal property of an eligible adult for a wrongful use or with intent to defraud, or both; or (iv) takes, secretes, appropriates, obtains, or retains, or assists in taking, secreting, appropriating, obtaining, or retaining, real or personal property of an eligible adult by undue influence. Sets forth when a financial institution, the officers and employees of a financial institution, a broker-dealer, or an investment adviser is deemed to have assisted in taking, secreting, appropriating, obtaining, or retaining real or personal property of an eligible adult. Sets forth when all other mandated reporters are deemed to have assisted in taking, secreting, appropriating, obtaining, or retaining real or personal property of an eligible adult. Exempts from liability nonsupervisory employees of a financial institution. Contains other provisions.

Creates the Ensuring Essential Services Act. Provides that the purpose of the Act is to ensure the State meets its obligation to provide certain essential services for individuals with developmental disabilities at consistent quality levels in accordance with its waiver agreement with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, all while allocating scarce taxpayer resources. Provides that any contract entered into between the Department of Human Services and an agency shall include a provision assuring the State of the uninterrupted delivery of the contracted-for services. Provides that such assurance shall provide that the agency has entered into a binding labor peace agreement with any labor organization that is the exclusive representative of the agency's frontline and direct support staff or, where no exclusive representation has been established, that the agency has or will enter into an agreement with any labor organization that seeks to become the agency's frontline and direct support staff's exclusive representative. Provides that the assurance shall become a condition of any contract entered into, renewed, or amended on or after the effective date of the Act. Requires the Department of Healthcare and Family Services to, no later than 90 days after the effective date of the Act, apply to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for a waiver or State Plan amendment to allow implementation of the contracting requirements. Requires the Department of Human Services, no later than 60 days after the effective date of the Act, to adopt rules implementing the requirements of the Act. Contains provisions on contract requirements for Department of Human Services' contracts; enforcement of contractual assurances; remedial actions for noncompliance; and other matters. Effective June 1, 2023.

Amends the Criminal Code of 2012. Provides that, in addition to other elements of the offense, a person commits a hate crime when the person displays or causes to be displayed, on public or private property, a burning cross, a Nazi swastika, a noose, a Confederate flag, or any other known symbol of white supremacist or neo-Nazi beliefs with the intent to intimidate a person or group of persons or incite violence against a person or group of persons. Includes a severability provision.

Creates the Let America Read Act. Provides that an entity or an entity's staff with oversight over the books, instructional materials, or curriculum used in a public school may not refuse to approve or prohibit the use of books, instructional materials, or a curriculum, including, but not limited to, memoirs, autobiographies, and biographies, based upon the depiction of matters of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, sexual and reproductive health, gender identity, religion, or human rights activism. Provides that these provisions do not restrict an entity with oversight over the books, instructional materials, or curriculum used in a public school from imposing limitations on the access to books, instructional materials, or a curriculum based upon the age and developmental level of the students who will have access. Amends the School Code to set forth a penalty for a school district that violates the Act.

Amends the Illinois Act on the Aging. In a provision requiring the Department on Aging to require an annual audit from all personal assistant and home care aide vendors contracting with the Department, provides that the annual audit shall assure that each audited vendor's procedures are in compliance with the Department's financial reporting guidelines requiring an 80% or higher employee wage and benefits cost split and an administrative cost split of no more than 20% (rather than an administrative and employee wage and benefits cost split as defined in administrative rules). Provides that subject to federal approval, on and after January 1, 2025, rates for homemaker services shall be increased to $32.75 to sustain a minimum wage of $20 per hour for direct service workers. Provides that rates in subsequent State fiscal years shall be no lower than $32.75 upon federal approval. Requires providers of in-home services to be required to certify to the Department that they remain in compliance with the mandated wage increase for direct service workers. Provides that fringe benefits, including, but not limited to, paid time off and payment for training, health insurance, travel, or transportation, shall not be reduced in relation to the rate increases. Provides that subject to federal approval, on and after January 1, 2025, the Department shall pay a rate add-on under the Community Care Program to those in-home service provider agencies that attest and document their direct service workers attend paid, quarterly, in-person training sessions to fulfill the in-service training requirements. Provides that the add-on shall be 1% of the homemaker services rate. Requires the Department to adopt rules.

Authorizes the Director of Natural Resources to execute and deliver a quit claim deed to Shabbonna Lake State Park in DeKalb County to the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation. Effective immediately.

Declares May of 2024 as "BPD Month".

Declares May 17, 2024 as Take Break from Social Media Day in the State of Illinois.