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Public Act 102-0463
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| HB3178 Enrolled | LRB102 10377 CMG 15704 b |
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AN ACT concerning education.
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Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
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represented in the General Assembly:
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Section 5. The School Code is amended by changing Section |
2-3.80 as follows:
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(105 ILCS 5/2-3.80) (from Ch. 122, par. 2-3.80)
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Sec. 2-3.80. (a) The General Assembly recognizes that |
agriculture is
the most basic and singularly important |
industry in the State, that
agriculture is of central |
importance to the welfare and economic stability
of the State, |
and that the maintenance of this vital industry requires a
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continued source of trained and qualified individuals for |
employment in
agriculture and agribusiness. The General |
Assembly hereby declares that it
is in the best interests of |
the people of the State of Illinois that a
comprehensive |
education program in agriculture be created and maintained by
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the State's public school system in order to ensure an |
adequate supply of
trained and skilled individuals and to |
ensure appropriate representation of
racial and ethnic groups |
in all phases of the industry. It is the intent
of the General |
Assembly that a State program for agricultural education
shall |
be a part of the curriculum of the public school system K |
through
adult, and made readily available to all school |
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districts which may, at
their option, include programs in |
education in agriculture as a part of the
curriculum of that |
district.
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(b) The State Board of Education shall adopt such rules |
and regulations
as are necessary to implement the provisions |
of this Section. The rules
and regulations shall not create |
any new State mandates on school districts
as a condition of |
receiving federal, State, and local funds by those
entities. |
It is in the intent of the General Assembly that, although this
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Section does not create any new mandates, school districts are |
strongly
advised to follow the guidelines set forth in this |
Section.
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(c) The State Superintendent of Education shall assume |
responsibility
for the administration of the State program |
adopted under this Section
throughout the public school system |
as well as the articulation of the
State program to the |
requirements and mandates of federally assisted
education. |
There is currently within the State Board of Education an
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agricultural education unit to assist school districts in the |
establishment
and maintenance of educational programs pursuant |
to the provisions of this
Section. The staffing of the unit |
shall at all times be comprised of an
appropriate number of |
full-time employees who shall serve as program
consultants in |
agricultural education and shall be available to provide
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assistance to school districts. At least one consultant shall |
be
responsible for the coordination of the State program, as |
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Head Consultant.
At least one consultant shall be responsible |
for the coordination of the
activities of student and |
agricultural organizations and associations.
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(d) A committee of 13 agriculturalists representative of |
the various and
diverse areas of the agricultural industry in |
Illinois shall be established
to at least develop a curriculum |
and overview the implementation of the
Build Illinois through |
Quality Agricultural Education plans of the Illinois
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Leadership Council for Agricultural Education and to advise
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the State Board of Education on vocational agricultural |
education, including the administration of the agricultural |
education line item appropriation and agency rulemaking that |
affects agricultural education educators. The
committee |
Committee shall be composed of the following: |
(1) 3 (6) agriculturalists
representing the Illinois |
Leadership Council for Agricultural Education; |
(2) 3 agriculturalists; |
(3) 2 secondary agriculture teachers
(2) Secondary |
Agriculture Teachers; |
(4) one representative of (1) "Ag In The Classroom" |
Teacher; |
(5) one community college agriculture teacher (1)
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Community College Agriculture Teacher; |
(6) one adult agriculture educator (1) Adult |
Agriculture Education
Teacher; |
(7) one university agriculture teacher educator (1) |
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University Agriculture Teacher Educator; and |
(8) one FFA representative (1) FFA
Representative. |
All members of the committee Committee shall be appointed |
by the
Governor by and with the advice and consent of the |
Senate. The terms of
all members so appointed shall be for 3 |
years, except that of the members
initially appointed, 5 shall |
be appointed to serve for terms of one 1 year, 4
shall be |
appointed to serve for terms of 2 years, and 4 shall be |
appointed
to serve for terms of 3 years. All members of the |
committee Committee shall serve
until their successors are |
appointed and qualified. Subject to a requirement that |
committee members in office before the effective date of this |
amendatory Act of 102nd General Assembly may serve the full |
term to which they were appointed, the appointment of |
committee members to terms that commence on or after the |
effective date of this amendatory Act of the 102nd General |
Assembly shall be made in a manner that gives effect at the |
earliest possible time to the changes that are required by |
this amendatory Act of the 102nd General Assembly in the |
representative composition of the committee's membership. |
Vacancies in terms
shall be filled by appointment of the |
Governor with the advice and consent
of the Senate for the |
extent of the unexpired term. |
The State Board of
Education shall implement a Build |
Illinois through Quality Agricultural
Education plan following |
receipt of these recommendations, which
shall be made |
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available on or before March 31, 1987.
Recommendations shall |
include, but not be limited to, the development of a
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curriculum and a strategy for the purpose of establishing a |
source of
trained and qualified individuals in agriculture, a |
strategy for
articulating the State program in agricultural |
education throughout the
public school system, and a consumer |
education outreach strategy regarding
the importance of |
agriculture in Illinois. |
The committee of agriculturalists
shall serve without |
compensation.
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(e) A school district that offers a secondary agricultural |
education program that is approved for State and federal |
funding must ensure that, at a minimum, all of the following |
are available to its secondary agricultural education |
students: |
(1) An instructional sequence of courses approved by |
the State Board of Education. |
(2) A State and nationally affiliated FFA (Future |
Farmers of America) chapter that is integral to |
instruction and is not treated solely as an |
extracurricular activity. |
(3) A mechanism for ensuring the involvement of all |
secondary agricultural education students in formal, |
supervised, agricultural-experience activities and |
programs.
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(f) Nothing in this Section may prevent those secondary |