Bill Text: IL HB5218 | 2023-2024 | 103rd General Assembly | Enrolled

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Amends the Nursing Home Care Act. Provides that the Department of Public Health shall adopt rules requiring the nursing assistant certification exam to be offered in both English and Spanish. Effective immediately.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 11-3)

Status: (Passed) 2024-07-19 - Public Act . . . . . . . . . 103-0695 [HB5218 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2023-HB5218-Enrolled.html

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AN ACT concerning regulation.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Nursing Home Care Act is amended by
changing Section 3-206 as follows:
(210 ILCS 45/3-206) (from Ch. 111 1/2, par. 4153-206)
Sec. 3-206. The Department shall prescribe a curriculum
for training nursing assistants, habilitation aides, and child
care aides.
(a) No person, except a volunteer who receives no
compensation from a facility and is not included for the
purpose of meeting any staffing requirements set forth by the
Department, shall act as a nursing assistant, habilitation
aide, or child care aide in a facility, nor shall any person,
under any other title, not licensed, certified, or registered
to render medical care by the Department of Financial and
Professional Regulation, assist with the personal, medical, or
nursing care of residents in a facility, unless such person
meets the following requirements:
(1) Be at least 16 years of age, of temperate habits
and good moral character, honest, reliable and
trustworthy.
(2) Be able to speak and understand the English

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language or a language understood by a substantial
percentage of the facility's residents.
(3) Provide evidence of employment or occupation, if
any, and residence for 2 years prior to his present
employment.
(4) Have completed at least 8 years of grade school or
provide proof of equivalent knowledge.
(5) Begin a current course of training for nursing
assistants, habilitation aides, or child care aides,
approved by the Department, within 45 days of initial
employment in the capacity of a nursing assistant,
habilitation aide, or child care aide at any facility.
Such courses of training shall be successfully completed
within 120 days of initial employment in the capacity of
nursing assistant, habilitation aide, or child care aide
at a facility. Nursing assistants, habilitation aides, and
child care aides who are enrolled in approved courses in
community colleges or other educational institutions on a
term, semester, or trimester basis, shall be exempt from
the 120-day completion time limit. During a statewide
public health emergency, as defined in the Illinois
Emergency Management Agency Act, all nursing assistants,
habilitation aides, and child care aides shall, to the
extent feasible, complete the training. The Department
shall adopt rules for such courses of training. These
rules shall include procedures for facilities to carry on

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an approved course of training within the facility. The
Department shall allow an individual to satisfy the
supervised clinical experience requirement for placement
on the Health Care Worker Registry under 77 Ill. Adm. Code
300.663 through supervised clinical experience at an
assisted living establishment licensed under the Assisted
Living and Shared Housing Act. The Department shall adopt
rules requiring that the Health Care Worker Registry
include information identifying where an individual on the
Health Care Worker Registry received his or her clinical
training.
The Department may accept comparable training in lieu
of the 120-hour course for student nurses, foreign nurses,
military personnel, or employees of the Department of
Human Services.
The Department shall accept on-the-job experience in
lieu of clinical training from any individual who
participated in the temporary nursing assistant program
during the COVID-19 pandemic before the end date of the
temporary nursing assistant program and left the program
in good standing, and the Department shall notify all
approved certified nurse assistant training programs in
the State of this requirement. The individual shall
receive one hour of credit for every hour employed as a
temporary nursing assistant, up to 40 total hours, and
shall be permitted 90 days after the end date of the

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temporary nursing assistant program to enroll in an
approved certified nursing assistant training program and
240 days to successfully complete the certified nursing
assistant training program. Temporary nursing assistants
who enroll in a certified nursing assistant training
program within 90 days of the end of the temporary nursing
assistant program may continue to work as a nursing
assistant for up to 240 days after enrollment in the
certified nursing assistant training program. As used in
this Section, "temporary nursing assistant program" means
the program implemented by the Department of Public Health
by emergency rule, as listed in 44 Ill. Reg. 7936,
effective April 21, 2020.
The Department shall adopt rules that require the
certification exam for nursing assistants to be offered in
both English and Spanish. The Department shall not place
any restrictions on which candidates may take the exam in
Spanish instead of English, including, but not limited to,
any requirement to be employed by a facility prior to
testing or any requirement for a specified number of
facility residents to speak a specific language.
The facility shall develop and implement procedures,
which shall be approved by the Department, for an ongoing
review process, which shall take place within the
facility, for nursing assistants, habilitation aides, and
child care aides.

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At the time of each regularly scheduled licensure
survey, or at the time of a complaint investigation, the
Department may require any nursing assistant, habilitation
aide, or child care aide to demonstrate, either through
written examination or action, or both, sufficient
knowledge in all areas of required training. If such
knowledge is inadequate the Department shall require the
nursing assistant, habilitation aide, or child care aide
to complete inservice training and review in the facility
until the nursing assistant, habilitation aide, or child
care aide demonstrates to the Department, either through
written examination or action, or both, sufficient
knowledge in all areas of required training.
(6) Be familiar with and have general skills related
to resident care.
(a-0.5) An educational entity, other than a secondary
school, conducting a nursing assistant, habilitation aide, or
child care aide training program shall initiate a criminal
history record check in accordance with the Health Care Worker
Background Check Act prior to entry of an individual into the
training program. A secondary school may initiate a criminal
history record check in accordance with the Health Care Worker
Background Check Act at any time during or after a training
program.
(a-1) Nursing assistants, habilitation aides, or child
care aides seeking to be included on the Health Care Worker

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Registry under the Health Care Worker Background Check Act on
or after January 1, 1996 must authorize the Department of
Public Health or its designee to request a criminal history
record check in accordance with the Health Care Worker
Background Check Act and submit all necessary information. An
individual may not newly be included on the Health Care Worker
Registry unless a criminal history record check has been
conducted with respect to the individual.
(b) Persons subject to this Section shall perform their
duties under the supervision of a licensed nurse.
(c) It is unlawful for any facility to employ any person in
the capacity of nursing assistant, habilitation aide, or child
care aide, or under any other title, not licensed by the State
of Illinois to assist in the personal, medical, or nursing
care of residents in such facility unless such person has
complied with this Section.
(d) Proof of compliance by each employee with the
requirements set out in this Section shall be maintained for
each such employee by each facility in the individual
personnel folder of the employee. Proof of training shall be
obtained only from the Health Care Worker Registry.
(e) Each facility shall obtain access to the Health Care
Worker Registry's web application, maintain the employment and
demographic information relating to each employee, and verify
by the category and type of employment that each employee
subject to this Section meets all the requirements of this

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Section.
(f) Any facility that is operated under Section 3-803
shall be exempt from the requirements of this Section.
(g) Each skilled nursing and intermediate care facility
that admits persons who are diagnosed as having Alzheimer's
disease or related dementias shall require all nursing
assistants, habilitation aides, or child care aides, who did
not receive 12 hours of training in the care and treatment of
such residents during the training required under paragraph
(5) of subsection (a), to obtain 12 hours of in-house training
in the care and treatment of such residents. If the facility
does not provide the training in-house, the training shall be
obtained from other facilities, community colleges or other
educational institutions that have a recognized course for
such training. The Department shall, by rule, establish a
recognized course for such training. The Department's rules
shall provide that such training may be conducted in-house at
each facility subject to the requirements of this subsection,
in which case such training shall be monitored by the
Department.
The Department's rules shall also provide for
circumstances and procedures whereby any person who has
received training that meets the requirements of this
subsection shall not be required to undergo additional
training if he or she is transferred to or obtains employment
at a different facility or a facility other than a long-term

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care facility but remains continuously employed for pay as a
nursing assistant, habilitation aide, or child care aide.
Individuals who have performed no nursing or nursing-related
services for a period of 24 consecutive months shall be listed
as "inactive" and as such do not meet the requirements of this
Section. Licensed sheltered care facilities shall be exempt
from the requirements of this Section.
An individual employed during the COVID-19 pandemic as a
nursing assistant in accordance with any Executive Orders,
emergency rules, or policy memoranda related to COVID-19 shall
be assumed to meet competency standards and may continue to be
employed as a certified nurse assistant when the pandemic ends
and the Executive Orders or emergency rules lapse. Such
individuals shall be listed on the Department's Health Care
Worker Registry website as "active".
(Source: P.A. 103-1, eff. 4-27-23.)