12/3/2018 - Legislative Update

The Illinois Legislature convened for several days in November for its Fall Veto Session and took action on several bills of interest to IAASE.

Some positive steps taken by the legislature:

• Both Houses overrode the veto of the Governor and passed HB 4284, a bill that requires three members of the State Board of Education come from the education community.  This is important given the fact that five seats are open coming in January. (Effective immediately)
• The legislature overrode the veto of the Governor on HB 4657 (Manley, D-Joliet) which creates the Emotional Intelligence Education Task Force to develop curriculum guidelines and best practices on emotional intelligence and social-emotional learning.
• They also overrode the veto of the Governor on HB 5195 (Greenwood, D-E. St. Louis) allows school boards to provide free transportation for any pupil residing within 1.5 miles from the school attended where conditions are such that walking, either to or from the school to which a pupil is assigned for attendance or to or from a pick-up point or bus stop, constitutes a serious hazard to the safety of the pupil due to a course or pattern of criminal activity.
• Both Houses overrode the veto of the Governor and passed HB 4514, a bill that allows only those who are licensed as school counselors to use the title of school counselor. (Effective immediately)

And schools will now be required to display information on the school report card about their participation in the Illinois Youth Survey thanks to SB 2345 (Lightford, D-Westchester).

As a reminder, members you can find all of the information about all of the bills passed and when they are due to be implemented by clicking here.