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1 | AN ACT concerning education.
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2 | Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
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3 | represented in the General Assembly:
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4 | Section 5. The School Code is amended by changing Section | |||||||||||||||||||
5 | 27A-4 as follows:
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6 | (105 ILCS 5/27A-4)
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7 | Sec. 27A-4. General Provisions.
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8 | (a) The General Assembly does not intend to alter or amend | |||||||||||||||||||
9 | the provisions
of any court-ordered desegregation plan in | |||||||||||||||||||
10 | effect for any school district. A
charter school shall be | |||||||||||||||||||
11 | subject to all federal and State laws and
constitutional | |||||||||||||||||||
12 | provisions prohibiting discrimination on the basis of
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13 | disability, race, creed, color, gender, national origin, | |||||||||||||||||||
14 | religion, ancestry,
marital status, or need for special | |||||||||||||||||||
15 | education services.
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16 | (b) The total number of charter schools operating under | |||||||||||||||||||
17 | this Article at any
one time shall not exceed 120. Not more | |||||||||||||||||||
18 | than 70 charter
schools
shall operate at any one time in any | |||||||||||||||||||
19 | city having a population exceeding
500,000, with at least 5 | |||||||||||||||||||
20 | charter schools devoted exclusively to students from | |||||||||||||||||||
21 | low-performing or overcrowded schools operating at any one time | |||||||||||||||||||
22 | in that city; and not more than 45
charter schools shall | |||||||||||||||||||
23 | operate at any one time in the remainder of the State, with not
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1 | more than one charter school that
has been initiated by a board | ||||||
2 | of education, or
by an intergovernmental agreement between or | ||||||
3 | among boards of education,
operating at any one
time in the | ||||||
4 | school district where the charter school is located. In | ||||||
5 | addition to these charter schools, up to but no more than 5 | ||||||
6 | charter schools devoted exclusively to re-enrolled high school | ||||||
7 | dropouts and/or students 16 or 15 years old at risk of dropping | ||||||
8 | out may operate at any one time in any city having a population | ||||||
9 | exceeding 500,000. Notwithstanding any provision to the | ||||||
10 | contrary in subsection (b) of Section 27A-5 of this Code, each | ||||||
11 | such dropout charter may operate up to 15 campuses within the | ||||||
12 | city. Any of these dropout charters may have a maximum of 1,875 | ||||||
13 | enrollment seats, any one of the campuses of the dropout | ||||||
14 | charter may have a maximum of 250 165 enrollment seats, and | ||||||
15 | each campus of the dropout charter must be operated, through a | ||||||
16 | contract or payroll, by the same legal entity as that for which | ||||||
17 | the charter is approved and certified.
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18 | For purposes of implementing this Section, the State Board | ||||||
19 | shall assign a
number to each charter submission it receives | ||||||
20 | under Section 27A-6 for its
review and certification, based on | ||||||
21 | the chronological order in which the
submission is received by | ||||||
22 | it. The State Board shall promptly notify local
school boards | ||||||
23 | when the maximum numbers of certified charter schools | ||||||
24 | authorized
to operate have been reached.
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25 | (c) No charter shall be granted under this Article that | ||||||
26 | would convert any
existing private, parochial, or non-public |
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1 | school to a charter school.
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2 | (d) Enrollment in a charter school shall be open to any | ||||||
3 | pupil who resides
within the geographic boundaries of the area | ||||||
4 | served by the local school board, provided that the board of | ||||||
5 | education in a city having a population exceeding 500,000 may | ||||||
6 | designate attendance boundaries for no more than one-third of | ||||||
7 | the charter schools permitted in the city if the board of | ||||||
8 | education determines that attendance boundaries are needed to | ||||||
9 | relieve overcrowding or to better serve low-income and at-risk | ||||||
10 | students. Students residing within an attendance boundary may | ||||||
11 | be given priority for enrollment, but must not be required to | ||||||
12 | attend the charter school.
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13 | (e) Nothing in this Article shall prevent 2 or more local | ||||||
14 | school boards from
jointly
issuing a charter to a single shared | ||||||
15 | charter school, provided that all of the
provisions of this | ||||||
16 | Article are met as to those local school boards.
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17 | (f) No local school board shall require any employee of the | ||||||
18 | school district
to be employed in a charter school.
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19 | (g) No local school board shall require any pupil residing | ||||||
20 | within the
geographic boundary of its district to enroll in a | ||||||
21 | charter school.
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22 | (h) If there are more eligible applicants for enrollment in | ||||||
23 | a charter school
than there are spaces available, successful | ||||||
24 | applicants shall be selected by
lottery. However, priority | ||||||
25 | shall be given to siblings of pupils enrolled in
the charter | ||||||
26 | school and to pupils who were enrolled in the charter school |
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1 | the
previous school year, unless expelled for cause, and | ||||||
2 | priority may be given to pupils residing within the charter | ||||||
3 | school's attendance boundary, if a boundary has been designated | ||||||
4 | by the board of education in a city having a population | ||||||
5 | exceeding 500,000. Dual enrollment at both a
charter school and | ||||||
6 | a public school or non-public school shall not be allowed.
A | ||||||
7 | pupil who is suspended or expelled from a charter school shall | ||||||
8 | be deemed to
be suspended or expelled from the public schools | ||||||
9 | of the school district in
which the pupil resides. | ||||||
10 | Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this subsection | ||||||
11 | (h), any charter school with a mission exclusive to educating | ||||||
12 | high school dropouts may grant priority admission to students | ||||||
13 | who are high school dropouts and/or students 16 or 15 years old | ||||||
14 | at risk of dropping out and any charter school with a mission | ||||||
15 | exclusive to educating students from low-performing or | ||||||
16 | overcrowded schools may restrict admission to students who are | ||||||
17 | from low-performing or overcrowded schools. "Priority | ||||||
18 | admission" for charter schools exclusively devoted to | ||||||
19 | re-enrolled dropouts or students at risk of dropping out means | ||||||
20 | a minimum of 90% of students enrolled shall be high school | ||||||
21 | dropouts.
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22 | (i) (Blank).
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23 | (j) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the | ||||||
24 | contrary, a
school district in a city having a population | ||||||
25 | exceeding 500,000 shall not
have a duty to collectively bargain | ||||||
26 | with an exclusive representative of its
employees over |
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1 | decisions to grant or deny a charter school proposal
under | ||||||
2 | Section 27A-8 of this Code, decisions to renew or revoke a | ||||||
3 | charter
under Section 27A-9 of this Code, and the impact of | ||||||
4 | these decisions,
provided that nothing in this Section shall | ||||||
5 | have the effect of negating,
abrogating, replacing, reducing, | ||||||
6 | diminishing, or limiting in any way
employee rights, | ||||||
7 | guarantees, or privileges granted in Sections 2, 3, 7, 8,
10, | ||||||
8 | 14, and 15 of the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act.
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9 | (k) In this Section: | ||||||
10 | "Low-performing school" means a public school in a school | ||||||
11 | district organized under Article 34 of this Code that enrolls | ||||||
12 | students in any of grades kindergarten through 8 and that is | ||||||
13 | ranked within the lowest 10% of schools in that district in | ||||||
14 | terms of the percentage of students meeting or exceeding | ||||||
15 | standards on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test. | ||||||
16 | "Overcrowded school" means a public school in a school | ||||||
17 | district organized under Article 34 of this Code that (i) | ||||||
18 | enrolls students in any of grades kindergarten through 8, (ii) | ||||||
19 | has a percentage of low-income students of 70% or more, as | ||||||
20 | identified in the most recently available School Report Card | ||||||
21 | published by the State Board of Education, and (iii) is | ||||||
22 | determined by the Chicago Board of Education to be in the most | ||||||
23 | severely overcrowded 5% of schools in the district. On or | ||||||
24 | before November 1 of each year, the Chicago Board of Education | ||||||
25 | shall file a report with the State Board of Education on which | ||||||
26 | schools in the district meet the definition of "overcrowded |
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1 | school". "Students at risk of dropping out" means students 16 | ||||||
2 | or 15 years old in a public school in a district organized | ||||||
3 | under Article 34 of this Code that enrolls students in any | ||||||
4 | grades 9-12 who have been absent at least 90 school attendance | ||||||
5 | days of the previous 180 school attendance days. | ||||||
6 | (Source: P.A. 96-105, eff. 7-30-09; 97-151, eff. 1-1-12; | ||||||
7 | 97-624, eff. 11-28-11; revised 11-29-11.)
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