As you may know, the General Assembly session ended on May 31. The budget as well as legislation that was passed during session will have critical impacts on children and families.

A new state tax on cigarettes and tobacco products that is projected to bring in approximately $700 million per year has offset some cuts to Medicaid, though not entirely. Several changes to the program were passed by the General Assembly, including lowering eligibility limits for FamilyCare and limiting covered prescriptions for adults and children, unless there is prior approval. There were also funding cuts to several key programs: the Early Childhood Block Grant; Child Care Assistance Program; Children's Mental Health Partnership as well as General State Aid, which is the largest source of funding for public school districts.

We are pleased to note that Teen REACH, which many of our members use to fund critical afterschool programs, was spared from a proposed 20 percent cut.

A number of important education-related bills were passed by the General Assembly:

• SB 3259 (Lightford and Chapa LaVia):  Started out as the bill to raise the drop out age to 18, but was amended to instead create a new commission to study the issue of high school graduation and student achievement.
• SB 3374 (Holmes and J. Mitchell):  Creates the Enhance Physical Education Task Force to promote and implement enhanced PE programs that can be integrated with a broader wellness strategy and health curriculum in elementary and high schools
• HB 5013 (Gabel and Steans):  Requires school districts and registered non-public schools to make public the immunization data they are required to send to the State Board of Education by November 15 of each year.  The posting of the data must occur by December 1 of each year.
• HB 5602 (Sente and Milner):  Allows police to orally share information with school officials regarding students who are under current police investigation for certain specified offenses if the police believe that students or school employees are at risk of imminent harm.  The stated purpose is to provide social services to the student in question and to act in that student's best interests while protecting the safety of the school.  The shared information is not to be made part of the student's school record.     

There were also a few bills of note that did NOT pass both houses:

• SB 3773 (Sandoval):  Was introduced to make non-profits that receive State funding "public bodies" subject to the Freedom of Information Act.  The bill was amended and, as amended, is significantly watered down to require a GOMB database of information about State grants to non-profits. The bill, as amended, was approved by the Senate Executive Committee the last week of session and is on 2nd Reading in the Senate.  Most non-profit groups continue to oppose.
• SB 3415 (Garrett and W. Davis):  A State Police initiative to expand the types of criminal offenses committed at school that must be reported to the police.  This would have included simple assault.  The bill passed the Senate, but ran into strong opposition in the House.
• HB 5290 (Cassidy and Steans): Amends the School Code bullying prevention provisions to expand the definition of "bullying" and require school districts to adopt anti-bullying policies that include certain elements. 

Through its College Planning Program, the Illinois Student Assistance Commission provides free on-going college planning assistance for students from families without prior college-going experience, beginning in eighth grade and continuing through post-secondary completion. Services are provided across the state via the Illinois Student Assistance Corps.  The program enrollment form is available at http://whatsnextillinois.org. For the best chance of participating in the program, eighth grade applicants and their parents or guardians should complete the form before the end of the school year.  For additional information, contact Jacqui Moreno at jacqueline.moreno@isac.ilinois.gov or (800) 899-4722 (ISAC), ext. 3708.