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* Rep. Anne Stava-Murray filed HB4585…
Amends the Department of Natural Resources (Conservation) Law of the Civil Administrative Code of Illinois, the Illinois State Police Act, the Counties Code, and the Illinois Municipal Code. Provides that a law enforcement officer may not be required to arrest a specific number of persons within a designated period of time.
* HB4579 from Rep. Camille Lilly…
Creates the Dentist and Dental Hygienist Compact Act. Provides that the State of Illinois ratifies and approves the Compact. Provides that the purposes of the Compact are to facilitate the interstate practice of dentistry and dental hygiene and improve public access to dentistry and dental hygiene services by providing dentists and dental hygienists licensed in a participating state the ability to practice in participating states in which they are not licensed. Includes provisions about state participation in the Compact; qualifying licenses that are eligible for Compact privilege, including active military members or their spouses; imposition of adverse actions against a qualified license; establishment and operation of the Commission, including each participating state selecting one commissioner to the Commission; development, maintenance, operation, and utilization of a coordinated database and reporting system containing licensure; rulemaking powers of the Commission; oversight, dispute resolution, and enforcement of the Compact; effective date of and amendment to the Compact; withdrawal from the Compact by a participating state; construction and severability; and effect on and conflict with other state laws.
* Book Riot…
Introduced into the Illinois House January 23 by Representative Anne Stava-Murray and cosponsored by Representative Diane Blair-Sherlock, HB 4567 aims to protect library workers throughout the state from harassment, threats, and disorderly conduct. The bill comes in the new legislative session after the state passed the nation’s first anti-book ban bill last year and dealt with several bomb threats in the months following that bill’s passage. The new bill would amend the Criminal Code of 2012. […]
Where once library workers were not explicitly named among populations protected from threats, the new bill would include the profession by name. The threats would be investigated and taken seriously, whether they came in person or through electronic means, including social media.
Not only does naming library workers in the Criminal Code lend legitimacy to the profession–and it covers everyone within a library from professional librarians to shelvers, custodians, and others–it codifies the importance of libraries to democracy in the state. Protections would extend beyond public library workers, too. It also covers those working for private libraries.
Stava-Murray represents Illinois’s 81st district, which includes Downers Grove, as well as parts of Lisle, Naperville, Woodridge, Darien, Westmont, and Bolingbrook. Downers Grove was among the libraries targeted by protesters and threats over a teen drag queen bingo event in fall 2022. Other public libraries in the district have been subject to similar threats and harassment. Diane Blair-Sherlock represents the 46th district, which includes all or parts of Addison, Oak Brook Terrace, Carol Stream, Glen Ellyn, Elmhurst, Villa Park, and more. Several of those libraries, including Addison, were subject tp bomb threats last fall.
* HB4584 from Rep. Stava-Murray…
Amends the School Code. Provides that any involvement by a law enforcement agency in an incident at a school or on school owned or leased property, including any conveyance owned, leased, or used by the school for the transport of students or school personnel, shall be reported monthly to the Illinois State Police by the school district superintendent or his or her designee or other appropriate administrative officer if the school is a nonpublic school. Provides that the State Board of Education shall receive an annual statistical compilation and related data associated with the reporting from the Illinois State Police. Provides that the State Board of Education shall compile this information by school and make it available to the public. Effective July 1, 2024.
State Sen. Sally Turner, R-Beason, said her bill, Senate Bill 2668, aims to alleviate farmers’ fears that land acquisitions by foreign nations and investors may inflate farmland prices and pose a potential threat to national security.
“We can’t go get new farmland. We can’t invent more or manufacture new farmland. It is something that we need in order to feed the world,” Turner said.
Currently, 24 states have passed similar legislation to manage the risks associated with the purchase of farmland by foreign entities that may jeopardize national security.
The National Defense Authorization Act addresses the issue of foreign entities buying up farmland, Turner said. In fact, the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act became law in late 1978. The law requires foreign investors to report their purchases.
* WGEM…
A new bill aims to give teachers across Illinois at least 45 minutes of planning time each day.[…]
“We wouldn’t need a bill like this if the feedback from teachers wasn’t that they were losing their planning time,” said state Sen. Meg Loughran Cappel, D-Shorewood.
She’s sponsoring the bill requiring teachers to get time to plan every day. […]
“What we’re finding is that teachers are promised planning time in their contracts but many times they’re pulled for different meetings or to sub and their planning times are being taken away, and they’re having to do those planning activities before school, after school, taking their work home,” Loughran Cappel said.
A special education teacher for 15 years, Loughran Cappel saw firsthand the importance of having time to plan. She also knows what she and her students lost when she didn’t have the time.
posted by Isabel Miller
Friday, Jan 26, 24 @ 9:42 am
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==HB 4567 aims to protect library workers==
It is so sad that this needs to be addressed at all. Our local libraries now regularly provide First Amendment Audit training to staff. Front-line staff, many times high school and college students working their first jobs, are harassed to try to get a response to post on wack-a-doodles’ TikTok feeds.
Comment by Sangamo Girl Friday, Jan 26, 24 @ 10:05 am
How much time did teachers get for their planning time before? What did they lose that we now need a law for it?
Does this increase the school day? Maybe we combine the yoga bill and the planning bill so kids take a nap and the teacher can plan at the same time
Comment by Frida's boss Friday, Jan 26, 24 @ 10:25 am
“We have a teacher shortage and may not be adequately funding education, especially in our more rural counties and in Chicago Public Schools. This bill will ignore that problem and pretend like the issue is that passing a law requiring planning periods is going to do some good. We like this bill because we always believe that you should sprinkle a bit of dirt and gravel on a bandaid before you slap it on a gaping wound.”
Comment by Candy Dogood Friday, Jan 26, 24 @ 11:10 am
Introduce any topic related to teachers and apparently you can never abuse and disrespect them enough.
Highest job turnover rate ever but there could never be any attempt to make the job better Americas favorite punching bags.
Oh but they were critical during those COVID lockdowns, werent they? What happened?
Comment by A Friday, Jan 26, 24 @ 11:37 am
Most districts have language about planning time in their collective bargaining agreements, including how much a teacher will be paid if they substitute for another teacher during their planning time. This bill will cause tons of headaches. For example, I know plenty of districts that guarantee 45 minutes of planning per day total, but the elementary teachers end up with two thirty-minute blocks of planning a day while their students go to music or PE or another “special.” Pass this bill and those teachers will most likely lose those extra 15 minutes as administrators scramble to rearrange the schedule to find each teacher a 45-minute uninterrupted block of time.
Also, everything Candy said.
Comment by Lagartha's Shield Friday, Jan 26, 24 @ 12:09 pm
Under Stava’s HB4585, courts could not issue bench warrants for multiple witnesses. Really?
Comment by Mary Friday, Jan 26, 24 @ 12:52 pm
=== Pass this bill and those teachers will most likely lose those extra 15 minutes as administrators scramble to rearrange the schedule to find each teacher a 45-minute uninterrupted block of time. ===
Language in a collective bargaining agreement would trump the state law because it pertains to their terms of employment.
Comment by Hannibal Lecter Friday, Jan 26, 24 @ 12:55 pm
The teacher’s shortage is not only because there is a shortage of new teachers entering the field, but because existing teachers are leaving the field. One reason for the exodus is the unreasonable expectation that teachers work for free. The work done during the plan period cannot be completed during the work day. Gone are the days when students worked quietly at their desks and teachers did their planning at their desks during the the school day. Teachers are engaging with students during the entirety of the school day. When they are pulled away from their plan periods for IEP meetings, to cover a class or any other reason, the work doesn’t just go away. So the work gets taken home, or the teacher comes in early because the papers still need to be graded, the assignments still need to be organized, etc. Yes, the plan period will get made up at some point later in the school year at some random time, but that is often close to the end of the school year where the need to plan is not as urgent as it was at the original time period. It is no coincidence that in a female dominated field, there is this unspoken expectation that work be done for free. We see the same exploitation of nurses with regard to patient load and paperwork. Students suffer when teachers can’t plan and often teachers get fed up and LEAVE.
Comment by Retired School Board Member Friday, Jan 26, 24 @ 2:07 pm