Bill Text: IL SB1984 | 2009-2010 | 96th General Assembly | Enrolled

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Bill Title: Amends the Charter Schools Law of the School Code and the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act. Provides that a charter school shall comply with all provisions of the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act; which is declaratory of existing law. Provides that "educational employer" under the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act includes the governing body of a charter school; which is declaratory of existing law.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 7-0)

Status: (Passed) 2009-07-30 - Public Act . . . . . . . . . 96-0104 [SB1984 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2009-SB1984-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 School Code is amended by changing Section
27A-5 as follows:
(105 ILCS 5/27A-5)
Sec. 27A-5. Charter school; legal entity; requirements.
(a) A charter school shall be a public, nonsectarian,
nonreligious, non-home based, and non-profit school. A charter
school shall be organized and operated as a nonprofit
corporation or other discrete, legal, nonprofit entity
authorized under the laws of the State of Illinois.
(b) A charter school may be established under this Article
by creating a new school or by converting an existing public
school or attendance center to charter school status. Beginning
on the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 93rd
General Assembly, in all new applications submitted to the
State Board or a local school board to establish a charter
school in a city having a population exceeding 500,000,
operation of the charter school shall be limited to one campus.
The changes made to this Section by this amendatory Act of the
93rd General Assembly do not apply to charter schools existing
or approved on or before the effective date of this amendatory

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Act.
(c) A charter school shall be administered and governed by
its board of directors or other governing body in the manner
provided in its charter. The governing body of a charter school
shall be subject to the Freedom of Information Act and the Open
Meetings Act.
(d) A charter school shall comply with all applicable
health and safety requirements applicable to public schools
under the laws of the State of Illinois.
(e) Except as otherwise provided in the School Code, a
charter school shall not charge tuition; provided that a
charter school may charge reasonable fees for textbooks,
instructional materials, and student activities.
(f) A charter school shall be responsible for the
management and operation of its fiscal affairs including, but
not limited to, the preparation of its budget. An audit of each
charter school's finances shall be conducted annually by an
outside, independent contractor retained by the charter
school.
(g) A charter school shall comply with all provisions of
this Article, the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act, and
its charter. A charter school is exempt from all other State
laws and regulations in the School Code governing public
schools and local school board policies, except the following:
(1) Sections 10-21.9 and 34-18.5 of the School Code
regarding criminal history records checks and checks of the

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Statewide Sex Offender Database of applicants for
employment;
(2) Sections 24-24 and 34-84A of the School Code
regarding discipline of students;
(3) The Local Governmental and Governmental Employees
Tort Immunity Act;
(4) Section 108.75 of the General Not For Profit
Corporation Act of 1986 regarding indemnification of
officers, directors, employees, and agents;
(5) The Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act;
(6) The Illinois School Student Records Act; and
(7) Section 10-17a of the School Code regarding school
report cards.
The change made by this amendatory Act of the 96th General
Assembly to this subsection (g) is declaratory of existing law.
(h) A charter school may negotiate and contract with a
school district, the governing body of a State college or
university or public community college, or any other public or
for-profit or nonprofit private entity for: (i) the use of a
school building and grounds or any other real property or
facilities that the charter school desires to use or convert
for use as a charter school site, (ii) the operation and
maintenance thereof, and (iii) the provision of any service,
activity, or undertaking that the charter school is required to
perform in order to carry out the terms of its charter.
However, a charter school that is established on or after the

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effective date of this amendatory Act of the 93rd General
Assembly and that operates in a city having a population
exceeding 500,000 may not contract with a for-profit entity to
manage or operate the school during the period that commences
on the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 93rd
General Assembly and concludes at the end of the 2004-2005
school year. Except as provided in subsection (i) of this
Section, a school district may charge a charter school
reasonable rent for the use of the district's buildings,
grounds, and facilities. Any services for which a charter
school contracts with a school district shall be provided by
the district at cost. Any services for which a charter school
contracts with a local school board or with the governing body
of a State college or university or public community college
shall be provided by the public entity at cost.
(i) In no event shall a charter school that is established
by converting an existing school or attendance center to
charter school status be required to pay rent for space that is
deemed available, as negotiated and provided in the charter
agreement, in school district facilities. However, all other
costs for the operation and maintenance of school district
facilities that are used by the charter school shall be subject
to negotiation between the charter school and the local school
board and shall be set forth in the charter.
(j) A charter school may limit student enrollment by age or
grade level.

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(Source: P.A. 93-3, eff. 4-16-03; 93-909, eff. 8-12-04; 94-219,
eff. 7-14-05.)
Section 10. The Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act is
amended by changing Section 2 as follows:
(115 ILCS 5/2) (from Ch. 48, par. 1702)
Sec. 2. Definitions. As used in this Act:
(a) "Educational employer" or "employer" means the
governing body of a public school district, including the
governing body of a charter school established under Article
27A of the School Code or of a contract school or contract
turnaround school established under paragraph 30 of Section
34-18 of the School Code, combination of public school
districts, including the governing body of joint agreements of
any type formed by 2 or more school districts, public community
college district or State college or university, a
subcontractor of instructional services of a school district
(other than a school district organized under Article 34 of the
School Code), combination of school districts, charter school
established under Article 27A of the School Code, or contract
school or contract turnaround school established under
paragraph 30 of Section 34-18 of the School Code, and any State
agency whose major function is providing educational services.
"Educational employer" or "employer" does not include (1) a
Financial Oversight Panel created pursuant to Section 1A-8 of

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the School Code due to a district violating a financial plan or
(2) an approved nonpublic special education facility that
contracts with a school district or combination of school
districts to provide special education services pursuant to
Section 14-7.02 of the School Code, but does include a School
Finance Authority created under Article 1E or 1F of the School
Code. The change made by this amendatory Act of the 96th
General Assembly to this paragraph (a) to make clear that the
governing body of a charter school is an "educational employer"
is declaratory of existing law.
(b) "Educational employee" or "employee" means any
individual, excluding supervisors, managerial, confidential,
short term employees, student, and part-time academic
employees of community colleges employed full or part time by
an educational employer, but shall not include elected
officials and appointees of the Governor with the advice and
consent of the Senate, firefighters as defined by subsection
(g-1) of Section 3 of the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act,
and peace officers employed by a State university. For the
purposes of this Act, part-time academic employees of community
colleges shall be defined as those employees who provide less
than 3 credit hours of instruction per academic semester. In
this subsection (b), the term "student" includes graduate
students who are research assistants primarily performing
duties that involve research or graduate assistants primarily
performing duties that are pre-professional, but excludes

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graduate students who are teaching assistants primarily
performing duties that involve the delivery and support of
instruction and all other graduate assistants.
(c) "Employee organization" or "labor organization" means
an organization of any kind in which membership includes
educational employees, and which exists for the purpose, in
whole or in part, of dealing with employers concerning
grievances, employee-employer disputes, wages, rates of pay,
hours of employment, or conditions of work, but shall not
include any organization which practices discrimination in
membership because of race, color, creed, age, gender, national
origin or political affiliation.
(d) "Exclusive representative" means the labor
organization which has been designated by the Illinois
Educational Labor Relations Board as the representative of the
majority of educational employees in an appropriate unit, or
recognized by an educational employer prior to January 1, 1984
as the exclusive representative of the employees in an
appropriate unit or, after January 1, 1984, recognized by an
employer upon evidence that the employee organization has been
designated as the exclusive representative by a majority of the
employees in an appropriate unit.
(e) "Board" means the Illinois Educational Labor Relations
Board.
(f) "Regional Superintendent" means the regional
superintendent of schools provided for in Articles 3 and 3A of

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The School Code.
(g) "Supervisor" means any individual having authority in
the interests of the employer to hire, transfer, suspend, lay
off, recall, promote, discharge, reward or discipline other
employees within the appropriate bargaining unit and adjust
their grievances, or to effectively recommend such action if
the exercise of such authority is not of a merely routine or
clerical nature but requires the use of independent judgment.
The term "supervisor" includes only those individuals who
devote a preponderance of their employment time to such
exercising authority.
(h) "Unfair labor practice" or "unfair practice" means any
practice prohibited by Section 14 of this Act.
(i) "Person" includes an individual, educational employee,
educational employer, legal representative, or employee
organization.
(j) "Wages" means salaries or other forms of compensation
for services rendered.
(k) "Professional employee" means, in the case of a public
community college, State college or university, State agency
whose major function is providing educational services, the
Illinois School for the Deaf, and the Illinois School for the
Visually Impaired, (1) any employee engaged in work (i)
predominantly intellectual and varied in character as opposed
to routine mental, manual, mechanical, or physical work; (ii)
involving the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment in

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its performance; (iii) of such character that the output
produced or the result accomplished cannot be standardized in
relation to a given period of time; and (iv) requiring
knowledge of an advanced type in a field of science or learning
customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized
intellectual instruction and study in an institution of higher
learning or a hospital, as distinguished from a general
academic education or from an apprenticeship or from training
in the performance of routine mental, manual, or physical
processes; or (2) any employee, who (i) has completed the
courses of specialized intellectual instruction and study
described in clause (iv) of paragraph (1) of this subsection,
and (ii) is performing related work under the supervision of a
professional person to qualify himself or herself to become a
professional as defined in paragraph (l).
(l) "Professional employee" means, in the case of any
public school district, or combination of school districts
pursuant to joint agreement, any employee who has a certificate
issued under Article 21 or Section 34-83 of the School Code, as
now or hereafter amended.
(m) "Unit" or "bargaining unit" means any group of
employees for which an exclusive representative is selected.
(n) "Confidential employee" means an employee, who (i) in
the regular course of his or her duties, assists and acts in a
confidential capacity to persons who formulate, determine and
effectuate management policies with regard to labor relations

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or who (ii) in the regular course of his or her duties has
access to information relating to the effectuation or review of
the employer's collective bargaining policies.
(o) "Managerial employee" means an individual who is
engaged predominantly in executive and management functions
and is charged with the responsibility of directing the
effectuation of such management policies and practices.
(p) "Craft employee" means a skilled journeyman, craft
person, and his or her apprentice or helper.
(q) "Short-term employee" is an employee who is employed
for less than 2 consecutive calendar quarters during a calendar
year and who does not have a reasonable expectation that he or
she will be rehired by the same employer for the same service
in a subsequent calendar year. Nothing in this subsection shall
affect the employee status of individuals who were covered by a
collective bargaining agreement on the effective date of this
amendatory Act of 1991.
(Source: P.A. 95-331, eff. 8-21-07.)