Bill Text: IL HB2505 | 2017-2018 | 100th General Assembly | Enrolled

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Bill Title: Amends the School Code. In a Section concerning the debt limitations of school districts, provides that, in addition to all other authority to issue bonds, Brookfield LaGrange Park School District Number 95 may issue bonds with an aggregate principal amount not to exceed $20,000,000 if certain conditions are met, including (1) that the voters of the district approve a proposition for the bond issuance at an election held on or after April 4, 2017 and (2) that, prior to the issuance of the bonds, the school board determines, by resolution, that the additions and renovations to the Brook Park Elementary and S. E. Gross Middle School buildings are required to accommodate enrollment growth, replace outdated facilities, and create spaces consistent with 21st century learning. Provides that the debt incurred on the bonds and on any bonds issued to refund or continue to refund such bonds shall not be considered indebtedness for purposes of any statutory debt limitation. Effective immediately.

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-2)

Status: (Enrolled - Dead) 2019-02-06 - Sent to the Governor [HB2505 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2017-HB2505-Enrolled.html

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AN ACT concerning education.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Higher Education Student Assistance Act is
amended by changing Section 65.100 as follows:
(110 ILCS 947/65.100)
(Section scheduled to be repealed on October 1, 2024)
Sec. 65.100. AIM HIGH Grant Pilot Program.
(a) The General Assembly makes all of the following
findings:
(1) Both access and affordability are important
aspects of the Illinois Public Agenda for College and
Career Success report.
(2) This State is in the top quartile with respect to
the percentage of family income needed to pay for college.
(3) Research suggests that as loan amounts increase,
rather than an increase in grant amounts, the probability
of college attendance decreases.
(4) There is further research indicating that
socioeconomic status may affect the willingness of
students to use loans to attend college.
(5) Strategic use of tuition discounting can decrease
the amount of loans that students must use to pay for

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tuition.
(6) A modest, individually tailored tuition discount
can make the difference in a student choosing to attend
college and enhance college access for low-income and
middle-income families.
(7) Even if the federally calculated financial need for
college attendance is met, the federally determined
Expected Family Contribution can still be a daunting
amount.
(8) This State is the second largest exporter of
students in the country.
(9) When talented Illinois students attend
universities in this State, the State and those
universities benefit.
(10) State universities in other states have adopted
pricing and incentives that allow many Illinois residents
to pay less to attend an out-of-state university than to
remain in this State for college.
(11) Supporting Illinois student attendance at
Illinois public universities can assist in State efforts to
maintain and educate a highly trained workforce.
(12) Modest tuition discounts that are individually
targeted and tailored can result in enhanced revenue for
public universities.
(13) By increasing a public university's capacity to
strategically use tuition discounting, the public

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university will be capable of creating enhanced tuition
revenue by increasing enrollment yields.
(b) In this Section:
"Eligible applicant" means a student from any high school
in this State, whether or not recognized by the State Board of
Education, who is engaged in a program of study that in due
course will be completed by the end of the school year and who
meets all of the qualifications and requirements under this
Section.
"Tuition and other necessary fees" includes the customary
charge for instruction and use of facilities in general and the
additional fixed fees charged for specified purposes that are
required generally of non-grant recipients for each academic
period for which the grant applicant actually enrolls, but does
not include fees payable only once or breakage fees and other
contingent deposits that are refundable in whole or in part.
The Commission may adopt, by rule not inconsistent with this
Section, detailed provisions concerning the computation of
tuition and other necessary fees.
(c) Beginning with the 2019-2020 academic year, each public
university may establish a merit-based scholarship pilot
program known as the AIM HIGH Grant Pilot Program. Each year,
the Commission shall receive and consider applications from
public universities under this Section. Subject to
appropriation and any tuition waiver limitation established by
the Board of Higher Education, a public university campus may

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award a grant to a student under this Section if it finds that
the applicant meets all of the following criteria:
(1) He or she is a resident of this State and a citizen
or eligible noncitizen of the United States.
(2) He or she files a Free Application for Federal
Student Aid and demonstrates financial need with a
household income no greater than 6 times the poverty
guidelines updated periodically in the Federal Register by
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under the
authority of 42 U.S.C. 9902(2).
(3) He or she meets the minimum cumulative grade point
average or ACT or SAT college admissions test score, as
determined by the public university campus.
(4) He or she is enrolled in a public university as an
undergraduate student on a full-time basis.
(5) He or she has not yet received a baccalaureate
degree or the equivalent of 135 semester credit hours.
(6) He or she is not incarcerated.
(7) He or she is not in default on any student loan or
does not owe a refund or repayment on any State or federal
grant or scholarship.
(8) Any other reasonable criteria, as determined by the
public university campus.
(d) Each public university campus shall determine grant
renewal criteria consistent with the requirements under this
Section.

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(e) Each participating public university campus shall post
on its Internet website criteria and eligibility requirements
for receiving awards that use funds under this Section that
include includes a range in the sizes of these individual
awards. The criteria and amounts must also be reported to the
Commission and the Board of Higher Education, who shall post
the information on their respective Internet websites.
(f) After enactment of an appropriation for this Program,
the Commission shall determine an allocation of funds to each
public university in an amount proportionate to the number of
undergraduate students who are residents of this State and
citizens or eligible noncitizens of the United States and who
were enrolled at each public university campus in the previous
academic year. All applications must be made to the Commission
on or before a date determined by the Commission and on forms
that the Commission shall provide to each public university
campus. The form of the application and the information
required shall be determined by the Commission and shall
include, without limitation, the total public university
campus funds used to match funds received from the Commission
in the previous academic year under this Section, if any, the
total enrollment of undergraduate students who are residents of
this State from the previous academic year, and any supporting
documents as the Commission deems necessary. Each public
university campus shall match the amount of funds received by
the Commission with financial aid for eligible students.

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A public university campus is not required to claim its
entire allocation. The Commission shall make available to all
public universities, on a date determined by the Commission,
any unclaimed funds and the funds must be made available to
those public university campuses in the proportion determined
under this subsection (f), excluding from the calculation those
public university campuses not claiming their full
allocations.
Each public university campus may determine the award
amounts for eligible students on an individual or broad basis,
but, subject to renewal eligibility, each renewed award may not
be less than the amount awarded to the eligible student in his
or her first year attending the public university campus.
Notwithstanding this limitation, a renewal grant may be reduced
due to changes in the student's cost of attendance, including,
but not limited to, if a student reduces the number of credit
hours in which he or she is enrolled, but remains a full-time
student, or switches to a course of study with a lower tuition
rate.
An eligible applicant awarded grant assistance under this
Section is eligible to receive other financial aid. Total grant
aid to the student from all sources may not exceed the total
cost of attendance at the public university campus.
(g) All money allocated to a public university campus under
this Section may be used only for financial aid purposes for
students attending the public university campus during the

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academic year, not including summer terms. Notwithstanding any
other provision of law to the contrary, any Any funds received
by a public university campus under this Section that are not
granted to students in the academic year for which the funds
are received may be retained by the public university campus
for expenditure on students participating in the Program or
students eligible to participate in the Program must be
refunded to the Commission before any new funds are received by
the public university campus for the next academic year.
(h) Each public university campus that establishes a
Program under this Section must annually report to the
Commission, on or before a date determined by the Commission,
the number of undergraduate students enrolled at that campus
who are residents of this State.
(i) Each public university campus must report to the
Commission the total non-loan financial aid amount given by the
public university campus to undergraduate students in fiscal
year 2018. To be eligible to receive funds under the Program, a
public university campus may not decrease the total amount of
non-loan financial aid for undergraduate students to an amount
lower than the total non-loan financial aid amount given by the
public university campus to undergraduate students in fiscal
year 2018, not including any funds received from the Commission
under this Section or any funds used to match grant awards
under this Section.
(j) On or before a date determined by the Commission, each

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public university campus that participates in the Program under
this Section shall annually submit a report to the Commission
with all of the following information:
(1) The Program's impact on tuition revenue and
enrollment goals and increase in access and affordability
at the public university campus.
(2) Total funds received by the public university
campus under the Program.
(3) Total non-loan financial aid awarded to
undergraduate students attending the public university
campus.
(4) Total amount of funds matched by the public
university campus.
(5) Total amount of claimed and unexpended funds
retained refunded to the Commission by the public
university campus.
(6) The percentage of total financial aid distributed
under the Program by the public university campus.
(7) The total number of students receiving grants from
the public university campus under the Program and those
students' grade level, race, gender, income level, family
size, Monetary Award Program eligibility, Pell Grant
eligibility, and zip code of residence and the amount of
each grant award. This information shall include unit
record data on those students regarding variables
associated with the parameters of the public university's

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Program, including, but not limited to, a student's ACT or
SAT college admissions test score, high school or
university cumulative grade point average, or program of
study.
On or before October 1, 2020 and annually on or before
October 1 thereafter, the Commission shall submit a report with
the findings under this subsection (j) and any other
information regarding the AIM HIGH Grant Pilot Program to (i)
the Governor, (ii) the Speaker of the House of Representatives,
(iii) the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, (iv)
the President of the Senate, and (v) the Minority Leader of the
Senate. The reports to the General Assembly shall be filed with
the Clerk of the House of Representatives and the Secretary of
the Senate in electronic form only, in the manner that the
Clerk and the Secretary shall direct. The Commission's report
may not disaggregate data to a level that may disclose
personally identifying information of individual students.
The sharing and reporting of student data under this
subsection (j) must be in accordance with the requirements
under the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of
1974 and the Illinois School Student Records Act. All parties
must preserve the confidentiality of the information as
required by law. The names of the grant recipients under this
Section are not subject to disclosure under the Freedom of
Information Act.
Public university campuses that fail to submit a report

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under this subsection (j) or that fail to adhere to any other
requirements under this Section may not be eligible for
distribution of funds under the Program for the next academic
year, but may be eligible for distribution of funds for each
academic year thereafter.
(k) The Commission shall adopt rules to implement this
Section.
(l) This Section is repealed on October 1, 2024.
(Source: P.A. 100-587, eff. 6-4-18; 100-1015, eff. 8-21-18;
revised 10-22-18.)
Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.