School Law Advisor Blog

New Statutes of Note

In our last newsletter, we addressed several new statutes enacted this summer which need to be on your radar. Here are a few other new statutes recently enacted that will impact your school district this school year.
 
Special Education – Transition Services: PA 102-516 (effective August 20, 2021) makes changes with regards to special education transition services for students aged 14 ½ and older. Among the changes to the School Code, the statute adds a definition of “independent living skills” and adds post-secondary for-credit and non-credit courses to definition of transition services. IEP teams should pay close attention to the definition of independent living skills to ensure that each of these areas were considered as the team determines appropriate transition assessments and appropriate transition services: “independent living skills” may include, without limitation, personal hygiene, health care, fitness, food preparation and nutrition, home management and safety, dressing and clothing care, financial management and wellness, self-esteem, self-advocacy, self-determination, community living, housing options, public safety, leisure and recreation, and transportation.
 
In addition, the statute requires that as a component of transition planning, a school district shall provide a student with specified information about the school district’s CTE opportunities and postsecondary CTE opportunities (list of programming options, scope and sequence, location). Provides that a student in high school with an IEP may enroll in the school district's CTE program at any time if participation in a CTE program is consistent with the student’s transition goals. The statute also adds certain IEP meeting invitees in the transition planning process, including disability services coordinator of the community college and the district’s CTE coordinator. There is a connected amendment to the Public Community College Act which requires each community college district to provide access to higher education for students with disabilities, in part by strongly encouraging each community college to have its disability services coordinator or the coordinator’s representative participate either in person or remotely in meetings held by high schools within the community college district to provide information to the student’s IEP team about the community college and the availability of courses and programs at the community college.
 
PA 102-516 also amends the Dual Credit Quality Act, and now requires the partnership agreement between the school district and the community college to include a collaborative process and criteria by which a school district and a community college district shall work to ensure that individual students with disabilities have access to dual credit courses, provided that those students are able to meet the criteria for entry into a dual credit course, among other requirements related to dual credit courses.
 
Online Curriculum: PA 102-238 (Effective August 2, 2021) requires that the content available on an Internet website or web service of a school district, including specifically any third party online curriculum that is made available to enrolled students or the public by a school district, is readily accessible to persons with disabilities, the school district must require that the Internet website or web service comply with Level AA of the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 or any revised version of those guidelines.
 
Special Education – PUNS Guide: PA 102-57 (Effective July 9, 2021) requires school districts to provide to parents and guardians of students a copy of the Department of Human Services’ guide titled “Understanding PUNS: A Guide to Prioritization for Urgency of Need for Services” each year at the annual review meeting for the student’s individualized education program.
 
Absenteeism and Truancy Policy: PA 102-157 (Effective July 23, 2021) requires certain elements to be included in school district policies on absenteeism and truancy and requires annual notification to students and parents of these elements:
 
  1. A definition of a valid cause for absence in accordance with Section 26-2a of the School Code.
  2. A description of diagnostic procedures to be used for identifying the causes of unexcused student absenteeism, which shall, at a minimum, include interviews with the student, his or her parent or guardian, and any school officials who may have information about the reasons for the student's attendance problem.
  3. The identification of supportive services to be made available to truant or chronically truant students. These services shall include, but need not be limited to, parent conferences, student counseling, family counseling, and information about existing community services that are available to truant and chronically truant students and relevant to their needs.
  4. Incorporation of the provisions relating to chronic absenteeism in accordance with Section 26-18 of this Code. Section 26-18 requires that each school district collect and review its chronic absence data and determine what systems of support and resources are needed to engage chronically absent students and their families to encourage the habit of daily attendance and promote success. The review shall include an analysis of chronic absence data from each attendance center or campus of the school district, and school districts are encouraged to provide a system of support to students who are at risk of reaching or exceeding chronic absence levels with strategies such as those available through the Illinois Multi-tiered Systems of Support Network.