(105 ILCS 5/3-14.21) (from Ch. 122, par. 3-14.21)

Sec. 3-14.21. Inspection of schools.

(a) The regional superintendent shall inspect and survey all public schools under his or her supervision and notify the board of education, or the trustees of schools in a district with trustees, in writing before July 30, whether or not the several schools in their district have been kept as required by law, using forms provided by the State Board of Education which are based on the Health/Life Safety Code for Public Schools adopted under Section 2-3.12. The regional superintendent shall report his or her findings to the State Board of Education on forms provided by the State Board of Education.

(b) If the regional superintendent determines that a school board has failed in a timely manner to correct urgent items identified in a previous life-safety report completed under Section 2-3.12 or as otherwise previously ordered by the regional superintendent, the regional superintendent shall order the school board to adopt and submit to the regional superintendent a plan for the immediate correction of the building violations. This plan shall be adopted following a public hearing that is conducted by the school board on the violations and the plan and that is preceded by at least 7 days' prior notice of the hearing published in a newspaper of general circulation within the school district. If the regional superintendent determines in the next annual inspection that the plan has not been completed and that the violations have not been corrected, the regional superintendent shall submit a report to the State Board of Education with a recommendation that the State Board withhold from payments of general State aid or evidence-based funding due to the district an amount necessary to correct the outstanding violations. The State Board, upon notice to the school board and to the regional superintendent, shall consider the report at a meeting of the State Board, and may order that a sufficient amount of general State aid or evidence-based funding be withheld from payments due to the district to correct the violations. This amount shall be paid to the regional superintendent who shall contract on behalf of the school board for the correction of the outstanding violations.

(c) The Office of the State Fire Marshal or a qualified fire official, as defined in Section 2-3.12 of this Code, to whom the State Fire Marshal has delegated his or her authority shall conduct an annual fire safety inspection of each school building in this State. The State Fire Marshal or the fire official shall coordinate its inspections with the regional superintendent. The inspection shall be based on the fire safety code authorized in Section 2-3.12 of this Code. Any violations shall be reported in writing to the regional superintendent and shall reference the specific code sections where a discrepancy has been identified within 15 days after the inspection has been conducted. The regional superintendent shall address those violations that are not corrected in a timely manner pursuant to subsection (b) of this Section. The inspection must be at no cost to the school district.

(d) If a municipality or, in the case of an unincorporated area, a county or, if applicable, a fire protection district wishes to perform new construction inspections under the jurisdiction of a regional superintendent, then the entity must register this wish with the regional superintendent. These inspections must be based on the building code authorized in Section 2-3.12 of this Code. The inspections must be at no cost to the school district.

(Source: P.A. 100-465, eff. 8-31-17.)