Bill Text: IL SB1937 | 2019-2020 | 101st General Assembly | Engrossed

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

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Bill Title: Reinserts the provisions of the bill as amended by House Amendment No. 1 with the following changes. In a Section concerning the debt limitations of school districts, adds language providing that, in addition to all other authority to issue bonds, Greenview Community Unit School District 200, Williamsville Community Unit School District 15, Elmwood Park Community Unit School District 401, and Maroa-Forsyth Community Unit School District 2 may issue bonds if the voters of those districts approve a proposition for the bond issuance and certain conditions are met. Provides that the debt incurred on the bonds shall not be considered indebtedness for purposes of any statutory debt limitation. Effective immediately.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 12-0)

Status: (Passed) 2020-06-26 - Public Act . . . . . . . . . 101-0646 [SB1937 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2019-SB1937-Engrossed.html

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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 Higher Education Veterans Service Act is
amended by changing Section 15 as follows:
(110 ILCS 49/15)
Sec. 15. Survey; coordinator; best practices report; best
efforts.
(a) All public colleges and universities shall, within 60
days after the effective date of this Act, conduct a survey of
the services and programs that are provided for veterans,
active duty military personnel, and their families, at each of
their respective campuses. This survey shall enumerate and
fully describe the service or program that is available, the
number of veterans or active duty personnel using the service
or program, an estimated range for potential use within a
5-year and 10-year period, information on the location of the
service or program, and how its administrators may be
contacted. The survey shall indicate the manner or manners in
which a student veteran may avail himself or herself of the
program's services. This survey must be made available to all
veterans matriculating at the college or university in the form
of an orientation-related guidebook.

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Each public college and university shall make the survey
available on the homepage of all campus Internet links as soon
as practical after the completion of the survey. As soon as
possible after the completion of the survey, each public
college and university shall provide a copy of its survey to
the following:
(1) the Board of Higher Education;
(2) the Department of Veterans' Affairs;
(3) the President and Minority Leader of the Senate and
the Speaker and Minority Leader of the House of
Representatives; and
(4) the Governor.
(b) Each public college and university shall, at its
discretion, (i) appoint, within 6 months after the effective
date of this Act, an existing employee or (ii) hire a new
employee to serve as a Coordinator of Veterans and Military
Personnel Student Services on each campus of the college or
university that has an onsite, daily, full-time student
headcount above 1,000 students. Each public college and
university must use its best efforts to hire a veteran of the
United States armed forces as the Coordinator of Veterans and
Military Personnel Student Services.
The Coordinator of Veterans and Military Personnel Student
Services shall be an ombudsperson serving the specific needs of
student veterans and military personnel and their families and
shall serve as an advocate before the administration of the

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college or university for the needs of student veterans. The
college or university shall enable the Coordinator of Veterans
and Military Personnel Student Services to communicate
directly with the senior executive administration of the
college or university periodically. The college or university
shall retain unfettered discretion to determine the
organizational management structure of its institution.
In addition to any responsibilities the college or
university may assign, the Coordinator of Veterans and Military
Personnel Student Services shall make its best efforts to
create a centralized source for student veterans and military
personnel to learn how to receive all benefit programs and
services for which they are eligible. The Coordinator of
Veterans and Military Personnel Student Services must also
create and maintain a contact list of all veterans attending
the public college or university.
Each college and university campus that is required to have
a Coordinator of Veterans and Military Personnel Student
Services shall regularly and conspicuously advertise the
office location, phone number, and Internet access to the
Coordinator of Veterans and Military Personnel Student
Services, along with a brief summary of the manner in which he
or she can assist student veterans. The advertisement shall
include, but is not necessarily limited to, the following:
(1) advertisements on each campus' Internet home page;
and

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(2) any promotional mailings for student application.
The Coordinator of Veterans and Military Personnel Student
Services may communicate with veterans of the public college or
university via email or other electronic means.
The Coordinator of Veterans and Military Personnel Student
Services shall facilitate other campus offices with the
promotion of programs and services that are available.
(c) Upon receipt of all of the surveys under subsection (a)
of this Section, the Board of Higher Education and the
Department of Veterans' Affairs shall conduct a joint review of
the surveys and post, on any Internet home page they may
operate, a link to each survey as posted on the Internet
website for the college or university. Upon receipt of all of
the surveys, the Office of the Governor, through its military
affairs advisors, shall similarly conduct a review of the
surveys and post the surveys on its Internet website. Following
its review of the surveys, the Office of the Governor shall
submit an evaluation report to each college and university
offering suggestions and insight on the conduct of student
veteran-related policies and programs.
(d) The Board of Higher Education and the Department of
Veterans' Affairs may issue a best practices report to
highlight those programs and services that are most beneficial
to veterans and active duty military personnel. The report
shall contain a fiscal needs assessment in conjunction with any
program recommendations.

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(e) Each college and university campus that is required to
have a Coordinator of Veterans and Military Personnel Student
Services under subsection (b) of this Section shall make its
best efforts to create academic and social programs and
services for veterans and active duty military personnel that
will provide reasonable opportunities for academic performance
and success.
Each public college and university shall make its best
efforts to determine how its online educational curricula can
be expanded or altered to serve the needs of student veterans
and currently-deployed military, including a determination of
whether and to what extent the public colleges and universities
can share existing technologies to improve the online curricula
of peer institutions, provided such efforts are both
practically and economically feasible.
(Source: P.A. 96-133, eff. 8-7-09.)
Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.