Bill Text: IL HB5218 | 2023-2024 | 103rd General Assembly | Enrolled

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Bill Title: Amends the Nursing Home Care Act. Provides that the Department of Public Health shall adopt rules requiring the nursing assistant certification exam to be offered in both English and Spanish. Effective immediately.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 11-3)

Status: (Passed) 2024-07-19 - Public Act . . . . . . . . . 103-0695 [HB5218 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2023-HB5218-Enrolled.html

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1 AN ACT concerning regulation.
2 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3represented in the General Assembly:
4 Section 5. The Nursing Home Care Act is amended by
5changing Section 3-206 as follows:
6 (210 ILCS 45/3-206) (from Ch. 111 1/2, par. 4153-206)
7 Sec. 3-206. The Department shall prescribe a curriculum
8for training nursing assistants, habilitation aides, and child
9care aides.
10 (a) No person, except a volunteer who receives no
11compensation from a facility and is not included for the
12purpose of meeting any staffing requirements set forth by the
13Department, shall act as a nursing assistant, habilitation
14aide, or child care aide in a facility, nor shall any person,
15under any other title, not licensed, certified, or registered
16to render medical care by the Department of Financial and
17Professional Regulation, assist with the personal, medical, or
18nursing care of residents in a facility, unless such person
19meets the following requirements:
20 (1) Be at least 16 years of age, of temperate habits
21 and good moral character, honest, reliable and
22 trustworthy.
23 (2) Be able to speak and understand the English

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1 language or a language understood by a substantial
2 percentage of the facility's residents.
3 (3) Provide evidence of employment or occupation, if
4 any, and residence for 2 years prior to his present
5 employment.
6 (4) Have completed at least 8 years of grade school or
7 provide proof of equivalent knowledge.
8 (5) Begin a current course of training for nursing
9 assistants, habilitation aides, or child care aides,
10 approved by the Department, within 45 days of initial
11 employment in the capacity of a nursing assistant,
12 habilitation aide, or child care aide at any facility.
13 Such courses of training shall be successfully completed
14 within 120 days of initial employment in the capacity of
15 nursing assistant, habilitation aide, or child care aide
16 at a facility. Nursing assistants, habilitation aides, and
17 child care aides who are enrolled in approved courses in
18 community colleges or other educational institutions on a
19 term, semester, or trimester basis, shall be exempt from
20 the 120-day completion time limit. During a statewide
21 public health emergency, as defined in the Illinois
22 Emergency Management Agency Act, all nursing assistants,
23 habilitation aides, and child care aides shall, to the
24 extent feasible, complete the training. The Department
25 shall adopt rules for such courses of training. These
26 rules shall include procedures for facilities to carry on

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1 an approved course of training within the facility. The
2 Department shall allow an individual to satisfy the
3 supervised clinical experience requirement for placement
4 on the Health Care Worker Registry under 77 Ill. Adm. Code
5 300.663 through supervised clinical experience at an
6 assisted living establishment licensed under the Assisted
7 Living and Shared Housing Act. The Department shall adopt
8 rules requiring that the Health Care Worker Registry
9 include information identifying where an individual on the
10 Health Care Worker Registry received his or her clinical
11 training.
12 The Department may accept comparable training in lieu
13 of the 120-hour course for student nurses, foreign nurses,
14 military personnel, or employees of the Department of
15 Human Services.
16 The Department shall accept on-the-job experience in
17 lieu of clinical training from any individual who
18 participated in the temporary nursing assistant program
19 during the COVID-19 pandemic before the end date of the
20 temporary nursing assistant program and left the program
21 in good standing, and the Department shall notify all
22 approved certified nurse assistant training programs in
23 the State of this requirement. The individual shall
24 receive one hour of credit for every hour employed as a
25 temporary nursing assistant, up to 40 total hours, and
26 shall be permitted 90 days after the end date of the

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1 temporary nursing assistant program to enroll in an
2 approved certified nursing assistant training program and
3 240 days to successfully complete the certified nursing
4 assistant training program. Temporary nursing assistants
5 who enroll in a certified nursing assistant training
6 program within 90 days of the end of the temporary nursing
7 assistant program may continue to work as a nursing
8 assistant for up to 240 days after enrollment in the
9 certified nursing assistant training program. As used in
10 this Section, "temporary nursing assistant program" means
11 the program implemented by the Department of Public Health
12 by emergency rule, as listed in 44 Ill. Reg. 7936,
13 effective April 21, 2020.
14 The Department shall adopt rules that require the
15 certification exam for nursing assistants to be offered in
16 both English and Spanish. The Department shall not place
17 any restrictions on which candidates may take the exam in
18 Spanish instead of English, including, but not limited to,
19 any requirement to be employed by a facility prior to
20 testing or any requirement for a specified number of
21 facility residents to speak a specific language.
22 The facility shall develop and implement procedures,
23 which shall be approved by the Department, for an ongoing
24 review process, which shall take place within the
25 facility, for nursing assistants, habilitation aides, and
26 child care aides.

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1 At the time of each regularly scheduled licensure
2 survey, or at the time of a complaint investigation, the
3 Department may require any nursing assistant, habilitation
4 aide, or child care aide to demonstrate, either through
5 written examination or action, or both, sufficient
6 knowledge in all areas of required training. If such
7 knowledge is inadequate the Department shall require the
8 nursing assistant, habilitation aide, or child care aide
9 to complete inservice training and review in the facility
10 until the nursing assistant, habilitation aide, or child
11 care aide demonstrates to the Department, either through
12 written examination or action, or both, sufficient
13 knowledge in all areas of required training.
14 (6) Be familiar with and have general skills related
15 to resident care.
16 (a-0.5) An educational entity, other than a secondary
17school, conducting a nursing assistant, habilitation aide, or
18child care aide training program shall initiate a criminal
19history record check in accordance with the Health Care Worker
20Background Check Act prior to entry of an individual into the
21training program. A secondary school may initiate a criminal
22history record check in accordance with the Health Care Worker
23Background Check Act at any time during or after a training
24program.
25 (a-1) Nursing assistants, habilitation aides, or child
26care aides seeking to be included on the Health Care Worker

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1Registry under the Health Care Worker Background Check Act on
2or after January 1, 1996 must authorize the Department of
3Public Health or its designee to request a criminal history
4record check in accordance with the Health Care Worker
5Background Check Act and submit all necessary information. An
6individual may not newly be included on the Health Care Worker
7Registry unless a criminal history record check has been
8conducted with respect to the individual.
9 (b) Persons subject to this Section shall perform their
10duties under the supervision of a licensed nurse.
11 (c) It is unlawful for any facility to employ any person in
12the capacity of nursing assistant, habilitation aide, or child
13care aide, or under any other title, not licensed by the State
14of Illinois to assist in the personal, medical, or nursing
15care of residents in such facility unless such person has
16complied with this Section.
17 (d) Proof of compliance by each employee with the
18requirements set out in this Section shall be maintained for
19each such employee by each facility in the individual
20personnel folder of the employee. Proof of training shall be
21obtained only from the Health Care Worker Registry.
22 (e) Each facility shall obtain access to the Health Care
23Worker Registry's web application, maintain the employment and
24demographic information relating to each employee, and verify
25by the category and type of employment that each employee
26subject to this Section meets all the requirements of this

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1Section.
2 (f) Any facility that is operated under Section 3-803
3shall be exempt from the requirements of this Section.
4 (g) Each skilled nursing and intermediate care facility
5that admits persons who are diagnosed as having Alzheimer's
6disease or related dementias shall require all nursing
7assistants, habilitation aides, or child care aides, who did
8not receive 12 hours of training in the care and treatment of
9such residents during the training required under paragraph
10(5) of subsection (a), to obtain 12 hours of in-house training
11in the care and treatment of such residents. If the facility
12does not provide the training in-house, the training shall be
13obtained from other facilities, community colleges or other
14educational institutions that have a recognized course for
15such training. The Department shall, by rule, establish a
16recognized course for such training. The Department's rules
17shall provide that such training may be conducted in-house at
18each facility subject to the requirements of this subsection,
19in which case such training shall be monitored by the
20Department.
21 The Department's rules shall also provide for
22circumstances and procedures whereby any person who has
23received training that meets the requirements of this
24subsection shall not be required to undergo additional
25training if he or she is transferred to or obtains employment
26at a different facility or a facility other than a long-term

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1care facility but remains continuously employed for pay as a
2nursing assistant, habilitation aide, or child care aide.
3Individuals who have performed no nursing or nursing-related
4services for a period of 24 consecutive months shall be listed
5as "inactive" and as such do not meet the requirements of this
6Section. Licensed sheltered care facilities shall be exempt
7from the requirements of this Section.
8 An individual employed during the COVID-19 pandemic as a
9nursing assistant in accordance with any Executive Orders,
10emergency rules, or policy memoranda related to COVID-19 shall
11be assumed to meet competency standards and may continue to be
12employed as a certified nurse assistant when the pandemic ends
13and the Executive Orders or emergency rules lapse. Such
14individuals shall be listed on the Department's Health Care
15Worker Registry website as "active".
16(Source: P.A. 103-1, eff. 4-27-23.)
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