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91_HB1722
LRB9104093NTsb
1 AN ACT to amend the Higher Education Student Assistance
2 Act by changing Section 65.50.
3 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
4 represented in the General Assembly:
5 Section 5. The Higher Education Student Assistance Act
6 is amended by changing Section 65.50 as follow:
7 (110 ILCS 947/65.50)
8 Sec. 65.50. Teacher training full-time undergraduate
9 scholarships.
10 (a) Five hundred new scholarships shall be provided each
11 year for qualified high school students or high school
12 graduates who desire to pursue full-time undergraduate
13 studies in teacher education at public or private
14 universities or colleges and community colleges in this
15 State. The Commission, in accordance with rules and
16 regulations promulgated for this program, shall provide
17 funding and shall designate each year's new recipients from
18 among those applicants who qualify for consideration by
19 showing:
20 (1) that he or she is a resident of this State and
21 a citizen or a lawful permanent resident alien of the
22 United States;
23 (2) that he or she has successfully completed the
24 program of instruction at an approved high school or is a
25 student in good standing at such a school and is engaged
26 in a program that will be completed by the end of the
27 academic year, and in either event that his or her
28 cumulative grade average was or is in the upper 1/4 of
29 the high school class;
30 (3) that he or she has superior capacity to profit
31 by a higher education; and
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1 (4) that he or she agrees to teach in Illinois
2 schools in accordance with subsection (b).
3 No rule or regulation authorized promulgated by the State
4 Board of Education prior to July 1, 1994 the effective date
5 of this amendatory Act of 1993 pursuant to the exercise of
6 any right, power, duty, responsibility or matter of pending
7 business transferred from the State Board of Education to the
8 Commission under this Section shall be affected thereby, and
9 all such rules and regulations shall become the rules and
10 regulations of the Commission until modified or changed by
11 the Commission in accordance with law.
12 If in any year the number of qualified applicants exceeds
13 the number of scholarships to be awarded, the Commission
14 shall give priority in awarding scholarships to students in
15 financial need. The Commission shall consider factors such
16 as the applicant's family income, the size of the applicant's
17 family and the number of other children in the applicant's
18 family attending college in determining the financial need of
19 the individual.
20 Unless otherwise indicated, these scholarships shall be
21 good for a period of up to 4 years while the recipient is
22 enrolled for residence credit at a public or private
23 university or college or at a community college. The
24 scholarship shall cover tuition, fees and a stipend of $1,500
25 per year. For purposes of calculating scholarship awards for
26 recipients attending private universities or colleges,
27 tuition and fees for students at private colleges and
28 universities shall not exceed the average tuition and fees
29 for students at 4-year public colleges and universities for
30 the academic year in which the scholarship is made.
31 (b) Upon graduation from or termination of enrollment in
32 a teacher education program, any person who accepted a
33 scholarship under the undergraduate scholarship program
34 continued by this Section, including persons whose graduation
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1 or termination of enrollment occurred prior to July 1, 1994
2 the effective date of this amendatory Act of 1993, shall
3 teach in any school in this State for at least 4 of the 7
4 years immediately following his or her graduation or
5 termination. If the recipient spends up to 4 years in
6 military service before or after he or she graduates, the
7 period of military service shall be excluded from the
8 computation of that 7 year period. A recipient who is
9 enrolled full-time in an academic program leading to a
10 graduate degree in education shall have the period of
11 graduate study excluded from the computation of that 7 year
12 period.
13 Any person who fails to fulfill the teaching requirement
14 shall pay to the Commission an amount equal to one-fourth of
15 the scholarship received for each unfulfilled year of the
16 4-year teaching requirement, together with interest at 8% per
17 year on that amount. However, this obligation to repay does
18 not apply when the failure to fulfill the teaching
19 requirement results from involuntarily leaving the profession
20 due to a decrease in the number of teachers employed by the
21 school board or a discontinuation of a type of teaching
22 service under Section 24-12 of the School Code or from the
23 death or adjudication as incompetent of the person holding
24 the scholarship. No claim for repayment may be filed against
25 the estate of such a decedent or incompetent.
26 Each person applying for such a scholarship shall be
27 provided with a copy of this subsection at the time he or she
28 applies for the benefits of such scholarship.
29 (c) This Section is substantially the same as Sections
30 30-14.5 and 30-14.6 of the School Code, which are repealed by
31 this amendatory Act of 1993, and shall be construed as a
32 continuation of the teacher training undergraduate
33 scholarship program established by that prior law, and not as
34 a new or different teacher training undergraduate scholarship
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1 program. The State Board of Education shall transfer to the
2 Commission, as the successor to the State Board of Education
3 for all purposes of administering and implementing the
4 provisions of this Section, all books, accounts, records,
5 papers, documents, contracts, agreements, and pending
6 business in any way relating to the teacher training
7 undergraduate scholarship program continued under this
8 Section, and all scholarships at any time awarded under that
9 program by, and all applications for any such scholarship at
10 any time made to, the State Board of Education shall be
11 unaffected by the transfer to the Commission of all
12 responsibility for the administration and implementation of
13 the teacher training undergraduate scholarship program
14 continued under this Section. The State Board of Education
15 shall furnish to the Commission such other information as the
16 Commission may request to assist it in administering this
17 Section.
18 (Source: P.A. 88-228.)
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