Legal Reference Guide & Database

Description

The Communications Act and Federal Communications Commission rules prohibit the operation of devices designed to prevent, jam, or otherwise interfere with cell phone communications.

Description

Each school board must prepare a report containing the base salary and benefits of the district superintendent and all administrators and teachers employed by the school district and publish same on its website.

Description

A school board that adopts a policy to incorporate activities to address intergroup conflict, shall make that policy available to the public by posting the information on the school district’s Internet website, if any.

Description

Requires that an employer that asks applicants to record video interviews and uses artificial intelligence analysis on the applicant videos must (1) notify each applicant before the interview that artificial intelligence may be used to analyze the applicant’s video interview and consider the applicant’s fitness for the position; (2) provide each applicant with information before the interview explaining how the artificial intelligence works and what general types of characteristics it uses to evaluate applicants; and (3) obtain, before the interview, consent from the applicant to be evaluated by the artificial intelligence program as described in the information provided. An employer may not use artificial intelligence to evaluate applicants who have not consented to the use of artificial intelligence analysis or share applicant videos, except if necessary in order to evaluate an applicant’s fitness for a position. Certain demographic information must be collected and reported to the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity if the employer will rely solely on the artificial intelligence analysis to determine whether an applicant will be selected for an in-person interview.

Description

According to rules established by the State Board of Education, school district personnel are required to prepare a comprehensive evaluation of the student to determine whether he or she is eligible for special education services. After the student is deemed eligible for services, an IEP meeting is held to develop his or her individualized education program. At the child’s initial IEP meeting and at each annual review meeting, the child’s IEP team shall provide the child’s parent or guardian with a written notification that informs the parent or guardian that the IEP team is required to consider whether the child requires assistive technology in order to receive free, appropriate public education. The notification must also include a toll-free telephone number and internet address for the State’s assistive technology program. Assistive technology includes both devices and services. As defined in IDEA: (i) an assistive technology device means any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of a child with a disability. (ii) an assistive technology service means any service that directly assists a child with a disability in the selection, acquisition, or use of an assistive technology device.

Description

A private entity in possession of biometric identifiers, such as retina or iris scans, fingerprints, voiceprints, or scans of hand or face geometry, must develop a written policy available to the public establishing a retention schedule and guidelines for permanently destroying biometric identifiers and information when the initial purpose for collecting or obtaining such identifiers or information has been satisfied or within 3 years of the individual’s last interaction with the entity, whichever occurs first. An entity may not collect, capture, purchase, receive, or obtain a person’s biometric identifier or information unless it first informs the subject in writing that such identifier and information is being collected or stored, the specific purpose or length of term for which it will be collected, stored, and used, and receives a written release. An entity may also not sell, lease, trade or otherwise profit from a person’s biometric information. An entity may not disclose biometric identifiers or information unless the individual consents to the disclosure, the disclosure completes a financial transaction requested and authorized by the individual, the disclosure is required by law or the disclosure is pursuant to a valid warrant or subpoena issued by a court. The entity must store, transmit, and protect the biometric identifiers and information from disclosure using a reasonable standard of care within the entity’s industry and in the same manner or more protective than the entity stores, transmits, and protects other confidential and sensitive information. A person can recover $1,000 in liquidated damages for each negligent violation, $5,000 in liquidated damages for each intentional or reckless violation, or actual damages, whichever is greater. An aggrieved person can also recover attorneys’ fees and costs and other relief that the court deems appropriate.

Description

If a school district has an Internet website, the school district shall post its current annual budget, itemized by receipts and expenditures, on the district’s Internet website.

Description

Each school district must create and maintain a policy on bullying which must be: (i) on file with the State Board of Education, (ii) published on the school district’s website, and (iii) included in the student handbook. This policy on bullying shall be based on the State Board of Education’s template for a model bullying prevention policy. The School Code provides that no student shall be subjected to bullying via transmission of information from a school computer, a school computer network, or other similar electronic school equipment. “Bullying” includes “cyber-bullying” and means any severe or pervasive physical or verbal act or conduct, including electronic communication, directed toward a student or students that has or can be reasonably predicted to have the effect of placing a student in reasonable fear of harm, causing a substantially detrimental effect on the student’s physical or mental health, substantially interfering with the student’s academic performance, or substantially interfering with the student’s ability to participate in or benefit from the services, activities, or privileges provided by a school. The statute also creates the Illinois Bullying and Cyberbullying Prevention Fund, from which the State Superintendent of Education may provide a grant to a school district, charter school, or non-public, non-sectarian elementary or secondary school to support its anti-bullying programming.

Description

All school districts must publish a bullying prevention policy on its website, as well as the information developed as a result of a policy evaluation.

Description

The bylaws, rules and regulations of the Chicago Board of Education shall be enacted, and textbooks, electronic textbooks, and courses of instruction shall be adopted or changed only at the regular meetings of the board. Funds appropriated for textbook purchases must be available for electronic textbook purchases and the technological equipment necessary to gain access to and use electronic textbooks at the local school council’s discretion.

Description

The chief executive officer shall provide the Board with an annual capital expenditure report within 90 days after the end of the fiscal year. The report shall be published on the district’s Internet website. This law applies to school districts in cities with a population of over 500,000.

Description

The district shall develop one-year and 5-year capital improvement plans. The proposed one-year capital improvement plan shall be posted on the district’s Internet website and shall be subject to public review and comment and at least 3 public hearings. The 5-year plan shall be published on the district’s website and distributed to all principals. This law applies to school districts in cities with a population of over 500,000.

Description

The school board (or the Chicago Board of Education, for cities with a population over 500,000 inhabitants) may establish appropriate rules and disciplinary procedures governing the use or possession of cellular radio telecommunication devices by a student while in a school or on school property, during regular school hours, or at any other time.

Description

The Charter Schools Revolving Loan Fund shall be appropriated for the use of interest-free loans to pay start-up costs of acquiring educational materials and supplies, including electronic textbooks and the technological equipment necessary to gain access to and use electronic textbooks. Further, the State Board is required to make grants not to exceed $250 per enrolled student (from a separate appropriation) to charter schools to pay their start-up costs of acquiring educational materials and supplies, textbooks, electronic textbooks and the technological equipment necessary to gain access to and use electronic textbooks, furniture, and other equipment or materials needed during their initial term. However, if a charter school fails to make payments toward administrative costs, the State Board may withhold these State funds until those administrative costs have been paid.

Description

A local education agency may use funds received under Part B of the IDEA to purchase appropriate technology for recordkeeping, data collection, and related management activities of teachers and related services personnel providing services described in the IEP of children with disabilities.

Description

The Secretary of Education will make grants to, and enter into contracts and cooperative agreements with, eligible entities to support certain activities to promote the development, demonstration, and use of technology to improve results for children with disabilities and to support educational media services designed to be of educational value in the classroom setting to children with disabilities.

Description

Provides grants to plan, establish, administer, and expand Community Technology Centers to individuals, communities, and populations that typically would not otherwise have the opportunity to use computer and telecommunications technologies.

Description

Grants under this program are available for: a) Training to familiarize youth and adults with basic skills needed to access and utilize computers, common computer applications programs (e.g., word processing) and the Internet; b) vocational skills training relating to information technology occupations; c) access to career related information, employment opportunities, and related search capabilities available through the Internet; d) computerized instruction in: 1) basic literacy skill; 2) GED preparation; and 3) English as a second language instruction; e) before and after school programs for youth for academic enrichment and reinforcement; f) computer skills training and support for entrepreneurs and small businesses; g) distance learning and video conferencing; h) access to assistive technology for disabled populations; i) professional development for teachers; and j) promotion of home access to computers.

Description

Any class that teaches comprehensive personal health and safety and comprehensive sexual health education must include course material and instruction to help students safely use the internet, including social media, dating or relationship websites or applications, and texting.

Description

School districts must annually post on their websites which curriculum is used to provide comprehensive personal health and safety and comprehensive sexual health education and the name and contact information, including an email address, of school personnel who can respond to inquiries about instruction and materials.

Description

All school districts must ensure that students receive developmentally appropriate opportunities to gain computer literacy skills beginning in elementary school.

Description

School boards have the power to sell or market any computer program developed by an employee of the school district, provided that such employee developed the computer program as a direct result of his or her duties with the school district or through the utilization of the school district resources or facilities. The employee is entitled to share in the proceeds of the sale or marketing of the program, except that neither the employee nor the school district may receive more than 90% of such proceeds.

Description

Beginning with the 2023-2024 school year, high schools must provide an opportunity for every high school student to take at least one computer science course aligned to the rigorous learning standards of ISBE.

Description

Establishes a competitive grant program to support the development or enrichment of computer science programs in K-12 schools through: (1) Expanded learning opportunities in grades K-12 to ensure that all students have access to computer science coursework that is aligned to rigorous State standards and emerging labor market needs; (2) Training and retraining of teachers of grades K‑12 to be more proficient in the teaching of computer science by providing professional development opportunities; (3) Supplying classrooms with materials and equipment related to the teaching and learning of computer science; and (4) More effective recruitment and better service to K-12 learners who are underrepresented in the computer science labor market for enrollment in computer science coursework. Priority consideration for all applications will be given to proposals that intend to serve a majority of learners or teachers with gender or racial/ethnic identities that are underrepresented in the computer science labor market.

Description

Mandates the State Board of Education to develop and adopt rigorous learning standards in the area of computer science and analyze and revise course titles dedicated to computer science.

Description

When purchase of supplies and materials or work involves an expenditure in excess of $35,000, schools must award such contracts to the lowest responsible bidder. However, an exception to this rule includes: purchases and contracts for the use, purchase, delivery, movement, or installation of data processing equipment, software, or services and telecommunications and interconnect equipment, software, and services.

Description

School boards must list on the districts Internet website all contracts over $25,000 and any contract the school board enters into with an exclusive bargaining representative. Further, each school district must prepare an annual report on all contracts over $25,000 awarded during the previous fiscal year and publish same on its website.

Description

All contracts with an in-state company for providing charter bus services for the sole purpose of transporting students regularly enrolled in grade 12 or below to or from interscholastic athletic or interscholastic or school sponsored activities must contain the following clause: “All of the charter bus drivers who will be providing services under this contract have, or will have before any services are provided: (1) submitted their fingerprints to the Illinois State Police in the form and manner prescribed by the Illinois State Police. These fingerprints shall be checked against the fingerprint records now and hereafter filed in the Illinois State Police and Federal Bureau of Investigation criminal history records databases. The fingerprint check has resulted in a determination that they have not been convicted of committing any of the offenses set forth in subdivision (c-1)(4) of section 6-508 of the Illinois Vehicle Code; and (2) demonstrated physical fitness to operate school buses by submitting the results of a medical examination, including tests for drug use, to a state regulatory agency.” Contracts with an out-of-state company requires inclusion of the above clause or a clause that provides that not all of the charter bus drivers have met the requirements.

Description

Student teachers and all applicants with a school district are required to authorize a fingerprint-based criminal history records check to determine if such student teachers or applicants have been convicted of any disqualifying, enumerated criminal or drug offenses or have been convicted, within 7 years of the application, of another felony. Upon receipt of the authorization, the school district shall submit the applicant’s name, sex, race, date of birth, social security number, fingerprint images, and other identifiers to the Illinois State Police. The information concerning the record of convictions shall be confidential and a copy of the record of convictions obtained from the Illinois State Police shall be provided to the student teacher or applicant for employment.

Description

Beginning October 1, 2021, any preparation program for teaching, school support, or administrative field shall be based on applicable standards of the Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading. One of those standards is that a culturally responsive teacher and leader employs authentic and modern technology usage inspiring digital literacy through an equity lens.

Description

The Cyberstalking law criminalizes harassing and threatening behavior, on at least two separate occasions, made via electronic communication and: (1) at any time transmits a threat of immediate bodily harm, sexual assault, confinement or restraint; (2) places that person or a family member of that person in reasonable apprehension of immediate bodily harm, sexual assault, confinement, or restraint; or (3) at any time solicits the commission of an act by any person. A person also commits cyberstalking when he or she knowingly, surreptitiously, and without lawful justification places electronic monitoring software or spyware on an electronic communication device as a means to harass another person and: (1) at any time transmits a threat of immediate bodily harm, sexual assault, confinement or restraint; (2) places that person or a family member of that person in reasonable apprehension of immediate bodily harm, sexual assault, confinement, or restraint; or (3) at any time solicits the commission of an act by any person. Further, a person who creates and maintains a website for at least 24 hours that includes a threat of immediate or future bodily harm, sexual assault, confinement, or restraint directed toward another person and which places the person or family member of that person in reasonable apprehension of immediate or future harm, is also a violation. Cyberstalking is a Class 4 felony. A second or subsequent conviction is a Class 3 felony.

Description

Certain districts identified by the ISBE that meet specified criteria must post a plan identifying strategies the school district will implement to reduce the use of exclusionary disciplinary practices, or racial disproportionality, or both.

Description

A Public Record is defined to include born-digital material, digitized electronic material, electronic material with a combination of digitized and born-digital material, and other documentary material, regardless of physical form or characteristics made, produced, executed or received by any agency or officer pursuant to law or in connection with the transaction of public business and preserved or appropriate for preservation by the agency as evidence of the organization, function, policies, decisions, procedures, or other activities. The Local Records Commission has promulgated regulations to establish procedures for the disposition of public records, procedures for the management and preservation of electronically generated and maintained records, and standards for the reproduction of such public records by digitized electronic format. The Local Records Act is applicable to student records maintained pursuant to the School Student Records Act and, therefore, a local school district must obtain the written approval of the appropriate local records commission before destroying or otherwise disposing of student records, whether they exist in physical hardcopy form or digital form.

Description

Given the advancement of technology in school districts, all school districts are encouraged to make available and use alternatives to dissection, when the alternatives are appropriate and can provide an educational experience that is equal or superior to the traditional use of dissection.

Description

Within 30 days of receiving the school district report cards from the State Superintendent of Education, each school district, including special charter districts and Chicago school districts, shall present such report cards at a regular school board meeting subject to applicable notice requirements, and post the report cards on the school district’s Internet website.

Description

School districts may, on a case-by-case basis, allow a student to take a portion of a driver’s education course through a distance learning program. Such decision must be approved by the school’s administration, including the driver education teacher and the parent/guardian. The student may not take the entire driver education course through a distance learning program.

Description

If a school district contracts with a commercial driver training school for purposes of classroom instruction and practice driving, the district shall post a copy of the final contract between the district and the commercial driving training school. If no website exists, the school district shall make the contract available upon request.

Description

School districts must pay employees who provide educational support services their regular rate of pay and benefits for any e-learning day if the employee would have reported for work but for the closure, unless the day is rescheduled and the employee will be paid their regular pay for the rescheduled day. Districts must also reimburse employees or contractors for any e-learning day in the 2021-2022 school year that occurred prior to April 5, 2022, if the employee did not receive pay or was required to use accrued time off, unless the day was rescheduled and the employee was paid their regular rate of pay for the rescheduled day.

Description

School districts statewide are authorized to utilize “E‑Learning Days” in lieu of emergency days or because a school was selected to be a polling place. The School Code provides that five clock hours of instruction or school work are required for each student participating in an e-learning Day. Exceptions to the five-hour instructional day requirement are for students participating in dual credit, internships, youth apprenticeships, or blended learning programs. Before the adoption of the E-Learning Program, the school board must hold a public hearing on a school district’s proposal for an E-learning Program. Notice must be provided at least 10 days prior to the hearing by (1) publication in a newspaper, (2) written or electronic notice designed to reach parents or guardians of all students in a school district; and (3) written or electronic notice designed to reach any exclusive collective bargaining representatives of school district employees and all those employees not in a collective bargaining unit. The school board’s approval of a school district’s initial E-learning Program and renewal of the E-learning Program shall be for a term of 3 years.

Description

Proposals for e-learning programs must contain provisions designed to accomplish: (i) ensure and verify at least 5 clock hours of instruction; (ii) ensure access from home or another appropriate remote facility for all students participating, including computers, Internet, and other forms of electronic communication; (iii) ensure that non-electronic materials are made available to students participating in the program who do not have access to required technology, or to participating teachers or students who are prevented from accessing the required technology; (iv) ensure appropriate learning opportunities for students with special needs; (v) verify each student’s electronic participation; (vi) address the extent to which student participation is within the student’s control as to time, pace, and means of learning; (vii) provide effective notice to students and their parents or guardians of the use of particular days for e-learning; (viii) provide staff and students with adequate training; (ix) ensure opportunity for collective bargaining negotiations with representatives of the district’s employees who would be affected in the event of an e-learning Day; (x) review and revise the program to address difficulties confronted; and (xi) ensure that protocol regarding general expectations and responsibilities of the program is communicated to teachers, staff, and students at least 30 days prior to utilizing an e-learning Day.