HB6862eng 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HB6862 Engrossed LRB096 22143 NHT 40801 b

AN ACT concerning education.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The School Code is amended by changing Section 27A-4 as follows:

(105 ILCS 5/27A-4)

Sec. 27A-4. General Provisions.

(a) The General Assembly does not intend to alter or amend the provisions of any court-ordered desegregation plan in effect for any school district. A charter school shall be subject to all federal and State laws and constitutional provisions prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability, race, creed, color, gender, national origin, religion, ancestry, marital status, or need for special education services.

(b) The total number of charter schools operating under this Article at any one time shall not exceed 120. Not more than 70 charter schools shall operate at any one time in any city having a population exceeding 500,000 and not more than 45 charter schools shall operate at any one time in the remainder of the State, with not more than one charter school that has been initiated by a board of education, or by an intergovernmental agreement between or among boards of education, operating at any one time in the school district where the charter school is located. In addition to these charter schools, up to but no more than 5 charter schools devoted exclusively to re-enrolled high school dropouts may operate at any one time in any city having a population exceeding 500,000. Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in subsection (b) of Section 27A-5 of this Code, each such dropout charter may operate up to 15 campuses within the city. Any of these dropout charters may have a maximum of 1,875 enrollment seats, any one of the campuses of the dropout charter may have a maximum of 165 enrollment seats, and each campus of the dropout charter must be operated by the same legal entity as that for which the charter is approved and certified.

For purposes of implementing this Section, the State Board shall assign a number to each charter submission it receives under Section 27A-6 for its review and certification, based on the chronological order in which the submission is received by it. The State Board shall promptly notify local school boards when the maximum numbers of certified charter schools authorized to operate have been reached.

(c) No charter shall be granted under this Article that would convert any existing private, parochial, or non-public school to a charter school.

(d) Enrollment in a charter school shall be open to any pupil who resides within the geographic boundaries of the area served by the local school board, provided that the board of education in a city having a population exceeding 500,000 may designate attendance boundaries for no more than one-third of the charter schools permitted in the city if the board of education determines that attendance boundaries are needed to relieve overcrowding or to better serve low-income and at-risk students. Students residing within an attendance boundary may be given priority for enrollment, but must not be required to attend the charter school.

(e) Nothing in this Article shall prevent 2 or more local school boards from jointly issuing a charter to a single shared charter school, provided that all of the provisions of this Article are met as to those local school boards.

(f) No local school board shall require any employee of the school district to be employed in a charter school.

(g) No local school board shall require any pupil residing within the geographic boundary of its district to enroll in a charter school.

(h) If there are more eligible applicants for enrollment in a charter school than there are spaces available, successful applicants shall be selected by lottery. However, priority shall be given to siblings of pupils enrolled in the charter school and to pupils who were enrolled in the charter school the previous school year, unless expelled for cause, and priority may be given to pupils residing within the charter school's attendance boundary, if a boundary has been designated by the board of education in a city having a population exceeding 500,000. Dual enrollment at both a charter school and a public school or non-public school shall not be allowed. A pupil who is suspended or expelled from a charter school shall be deemed to be suspended or expelled from the public schools of the school district in which the pupil resides. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this subsection (h), any charter school with a mission exclusive to educating high school dropouts may restrict admission to students who are high school dropouts.

(i) (Blank).

(j) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, a school district in a city having a population exceeding 500,000 shall not have a duty to collectively bargain with an exclusive representative of its employees over decisions to grant or deny a charter school proposal under Section 27A-8 of this Code, decisions to renew or revoke a charter under Section 27A-9 of this Code, and the impact of these decisions, provided that nothing in this Section shall have the effect of negating, abrogating, replacing, reducing, diminishing, or limiting in any way employee rights, guarantees, or privileges granted in Sections 2, 3, 7, 8, 10, 14, and 15 of the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act.

(k) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, if more than one school district jointly issues a charter to a single shared charter school operated by Aurora University, then the charter school may (i) restrict attendance to only residents of a municipality shared by the districts and (ii) in lieu of a lottery, select students for enrollment based on admission criteria that focuses on academic proficiency in science and mathematics; however, in no case shall such a charter school discriminate on the basis of disability, race, creed, color, gender, national origin, religion, ancestry, marital status, or need for special education services in the establishment of its attendance boundaries or in the selection of students for enrollment.

(Source: P.A. 96-105, eff. 7-30-09.)