Bill Text: IL HB3862 | 2023-2024 | 103rd General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Amends the Children with Disabilities Article of the School Code. Provides that school boards shall ensure that the Individualized Education Program process is transparent for all students and the families of students. Provides that school boards shall adopt a policy to ensure equitable and clear access to the Individualized Education Program process.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2023-03-10 - Rule 19(a) / Re-referred to Rules Committee [HB3862 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2023-HB3862-Introduced.html

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103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY State of Illinois 2023 and 2024 HB3862 Introduced , by Rep. Harry Benton SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
105 ILCS 5/14-6.01 from Ch. 122, par. 14-6.01
Amends the Children with Disabilities Article of the School Code. Provides that school boards shall ensure that the Individualized Education Program process is transparent for all students and the families of students. Provides that school boards shall adopt a policy to ensure equitable and clear access to the Individualized Education Program process.
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A BILL FOR
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AN ACT concerning education.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The School Code is amended by changing Section
14-6.01 as follows:
(105 ILCS 5/14-6.01) (from Ch. 122, par. 14-6.01)
Sec. 14-6.01. Powers and duties of school boards. School
boards of one or more school districts establishing and
maintaining any of the educational facilities described in
this Article shall, in connection therewith, exercise similar
powers and duties as are prescribed by law for the
establishment, maintenance, and management of other recognized
educational facilities. Such school boards shall include only
eligible children in the program and shall comply with all the
requirements of this Article and all rules and regulations
established by the State Board of Education. Such school
boards shall accept in part-time attendance children with
disabilities of the types described in Sections 14-1.02
through 14-1.07 who are enrolled in nonpublic schools. A
request for part-time attendance must be submitted by a parent
or guardian of the child with a disability and may be made only
to those public schools located in the district where the
child attending the nonpublic school resides; however, nothing

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in this Section shall be construed as prohibiting an agreement
between the district where the child resides and another
public school district to provide special educational services
if such an arrangement is deemed more convenient and
economical. Special education and related services must be
provided in accordance with the student's IEP no later than 10
school attendance days after notice is provided to the parents
pursuant to Section 300.503 of Title 34 of the Code of Federal
Regulations and implementing rules adopted by the State Board
of Education. Transportation for students in part time
attendance shall be provided only if required in the child's
individualized educational program on the basis of the child's
disabling condition or as the special education program
location may require.
School boards shall ensure that the Individualized
Education Program process is transparent for all students and
the families of students. School boards shall adopt a policy
to ensure equitable and clear access to the Individualized
Education Program process.
Beginning with the 2019-2020 school year, a school board
shall post on its Internet website, if any, and incorporate
into its student handbook or newsletter notice that students
with disabilities who do not qualify for an individualized
education program, as required by the federal Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act and implementing provisions of this
Code, may qualify for services under Section 504 of the

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federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973 if the child (i) has a
physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or
more major life activities, (ii) has a record of a physical or
mental impairment, or (iii) is regarded as having a physical
or mental impairment. Such notice shall identify the location
and phone number of the office or agent of the school district
to whom inquiries should be directed regarding the
identification, assessment, and placement of such children.
The notice shall also state that any parent who is deaf or does
not typically communicate using spoken English and who
participates in a Section 504 meeting with a representative of
a local educational agency shall be entitled to the services
of an interpreter.
For a school district organized under Article 34 only,
beginning with the 2019-2020 school year, the school district
shall, in collaboration with its primary office overseeing
special education, publish on the school district's publicly
available website any proposed changes to its special
education policies, directives, guidelines, or procedures that
impact the provision of educational or related services to
students with disabilities or the procedural safeguards
afforded to students with disabilities or their parents or
guardians made by the school district or school board. Any
policy, directive, guideline, or procedural change that
impacts those provisions or safeguards that is authorized by
the school district's primary office overseeing special

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education or any other administrative office of the school
district must be published on the school district's publicly
available website no later than 45 days before the adoption of
that change. Any policy directive, guideline, or procedural
change that impacts those provisions or safeguards that is
authorized by the school board must be published on the school
district's publicly available website no later than 30 days
before the date of presentation to the school board for
adoption. The school district's website must allow for virtual
public comments on proposed special education policy,
directive, guideline, or procedural changes that impact the
provision of educational or related services to students with
disabilities or the procedural safeguards afforded to students
with disabilities or their parents or guardians from the date
of the notification of the proposed change on the website
until the date the change is adopted by the school district or
until the date the change is presented to the school board for
adoption. After the period for public comment is closed, the
school district must maintain all public comments for a period
of not less than 2 years from the date the special education
change is adopted. The public comments are subject to the
Freedom of Information Act. The school board shall, at a
minimum, advertise the notice of the change and availability
for public comment on its website. The State Board of
Education may add additional reporting requirements for the
district beyond policy, directive, guideline, or procedural

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changes that impact the provision of educational or related
services to students with disabilities or the procedural
safeguards afforded to students with disabilities or their
parents or guardians if the State Board determines it is in the
best interest of the students enrolled in the district
receiving special education services.
School boards shall immediately provide upon request by
any person written materials and other information that
indicates the specific policies, procedures, rules and
regulations regarding the identification, evaluation or
educational placement of children with disabilities under
Section 14-8.02 of the School Code. Such information shall
include information regarding all rights and entitlements of
such children under this Code, and of the opportunity to
present complaints with respect to any matter relating to
educational placement of the student, or the provision of a
free appropriate public education and to have an impartial due
process hearing on the complaint. The notice shall inform the
parents or guardian in the parents' or guardian's native
language, unless it is clearly not feasible to do so, of their
rights and all procedures available pursuant to this Act and
federal Public Law 94-142; it shall be the responsibility of
the State Superintendent to develop uniform notices setting
forth the procedures available under this Act and federal
Public Law 94-142, as amended, to be used by all school boards.
The notice shall also inform the parents or guardian of the

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availability upon request of a list of free or low-cost legal
and other relevant services available locally to assist
parents or guardians in exercising rights or entitlements
under this Code. For a school district organized under Article
34 only, the school district must make the entirety of its
special education Procedural Manual and any other guidance
documents pertaining to special education publicly available,
in print and on the school district's website, in both English
and Spanish. Upon request, the school district must make the
Procedural Manual and other guidance documents available in
print in any other language and accessible for individuals
with disabilities.
Any parent or guardian who is deaf, or does not normally
communicate using spoken English, who participates in a
meeting with a representative of a local educational agency
for the purposes of developing an individualized educational
program shall be entitled to the services of an interpreter.
No student with a disability or, in a school district
organized under Article 34 of this Code, child with a learning
disability may be denied promotion, graduation or a general
diploma on the basis of failing a minimal competency test when
such failure can be directly related to the disabling
condition of the student. For the purpose of this Act,
"minimal competency testing" is defined as tests which are
constructed to measure the acquisition of skills to or beyond
a certain defined standard.

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Effective July 1, 1966, high school districts are
financially responsible for the education of pupils with
disabilities who are residents in their districts when such
pupils have reached age 15 but may admit children with
disabilities into special educational facilities without
regard to graduation from the eighth grade after such pupils
have reached the age of 14 1/2 years. Upon a pupil with a
disability attaining the age of 14 1/2 years, it shall be the
duty of the elementary school district in which the pupil
resides to notify the high school district in which the pupil
resides of the pupil's current eligibility for special
education services, of the pupil's current program, and of all
evaluation data upon which the current program is based. After
an examination of that information the high school district
may accept the current placement and all subsequent timelines
shall be governed by the current individualized educational
program; or the high school district may elect to conduct its
own evaluation and multidisciplinary staff conference and
formulate its own individualized educational program, in which
case the procedures and timelines contained in Section 14-8.02
shall apply.
(Source: P.A. 101-515, eff. 8-23-19; 102-1072, eff. 6-10-22.)