HB5421 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB102 24977 KTG 34232 b

102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2021 and 2022
HB5421

Introduced 1/31/2022, by Rep. Jawaharial Williams

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

325 ILCS 5/7.2

from Ch. 23, par. 2057.2

Amends the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act. Provides that notwithstanding any other law or rule to the contrary, whenever a child protective investigator of a Child Protective Service Unit must visit a home or residence to investigate a report of abuse or neglect, at least one local law enforcement officer must accompany the child protective investigator to offer assistance and must remain with the child protective investigator for the duration of the visit until the child protective investigator is safely clear of the home or residence.

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning children.

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

Section 5. The Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act is amended by changing Section 7.2 as follows:

(325 ILCS 5/7.2) (from Ch. 23, par. 2057.2)

Sec. 7.2. The Department shall establish a Child Protective Service Unit within each geographic region as designated by the Director of the Department. The Child Protective Service Unit shall perform those functions assigned by this Act to it and only such others that would further the purposes of this Act. It shall have a sufficient staff of qualified personnel to fulfill the purpose of this Act and be organized in such a way as to maximize the continuity of responsibility, care and service of the individual workers toward the individual children and families.

The Child Protective Service Unit shall designate members of each unit to receive specialty training to serve as special consultants to unit staff and the public in the areas of child sexual abuse, child deaths and injuries, and out-of-home investigations.

Notwithstanding any other law or rule to the contrary, whenever a child protective investigator of a Child Protective Service Unit must visit a home or residence to investigate a report of abuse or neglect, at least one local law enforcement officer must accompany the child protective investigator to offer assistance and must remain with the child protective investigator for the duration of the visit until the child protective investigator is safely clear of the home or residence. If a child protective investigator of a Child Protective Service Unit is unable to obtain assistance from other unit members when responding to a high-risk report of child abuse or neglect and the child protective investigator has a reasonable belief or suspicion that a subject named in the report has the potential for violence, the child protective investigator may request assistance from local law enforcement officers to be provided at a mutually available time. Law enforcement officers shall, upon request, make all reasonable efforts to assist the child protective investigator in receiving law enforcement assistance from any other police jurisdiction that is outside the accompanying officers' primary jurisdiction.

(Source: P.A. 100-625, eff. 7-20-18.)