Bill Text: IL SB0574 | 2013-2014 | 98th General Assembly | Amended

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Bill Title: Amends the School Code. Makes a technical change in a Section concerning the Common School Fund.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Failed) 2015-01-13 - Session Sine Die [SB0574 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2013-SB0574-Amended.html

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Sen. William Delgado

Filed: 3/6/2013

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AMENDMENT TO SENATE BILL 574
AMENDMENT NO. ______. Amend Senate Bill 574 by replacing
everything after the enacting clause with the following:
"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

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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, with at least 5
charter schools devoted exclusively to students from
low-performing or overcrowded schools operating at any one time
in that city; 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 and/or students 16 or 15 years old at risk of dropping
out 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 300 165 enrollment seats, and
each campus of the dropout charter must be operated, through a
contract or payroll, 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

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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

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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 grant priority admission to students
who are high school dropouts and/or students 16 or 15 years old
at risk of dropping out and any charter school with a mission
exclusive to educating students from low-performing or
overcrowded schools may restrict admission to students who are
from low-performing or overcrowded schools. "Priority
admission" for charter schools exclusively devoted to
re-enrolled dropouts or students at risk of dropping out means

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a minimum of 90% of students enrolled shall be 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) In this Section:
"Low-performing school" means a public school in a school
district organized under Article 34 of this Code that enrolls
students in any of grades kindergarten through 8 and that is
ranked within the lowest 10% of schools in that district in
terms of the percentage of students meeting or exceeding
standards on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test.
"Overcrowded school" means a public school in a school
district organized under Article 34 of this Code that (i)
enrolls students in any of grades kindergarten through 8, (ii)
has a percentage of low-income students of 70% or more, as

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identified in the most recently available School Report Card
published by the State Board of Education, and (iii) is
determined by the Chicago Board of Education to be in the most
severely overcrowded 5% of schools in the district. On or
before November 1 of each year, the Chicago Board of Education
shall file a report with the State Board of Education on which
schools in the district meet the definition of "overcrowded
school". "Students at risk of dropping out" means students 16
or 15 years old in a public school in a district organized
under Article 34 of this Code that enrolls students in any
grades 9-12 who have been absent at least 90 school attendance
days of the previous 180 school attendance days.
(Source: P.A. 96-105, eff. 7-30-09; 97-151, eff. 1-1-12;
97-624, eff. 11-28-11; 97-813, eff. 7-13-12.)
Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect July 1,
2013.".