105 ILCS 70/35

(105 ILCS 70/35)

Sec. 35. Course placement; program placement; placement flexibility; graduation; extracurricular activities; absences related to deployment activities for children of active duty military personnel.

(a) If a student transfers before or during the school year, the school in the receiving state shall initially honor placement of the student in educational courses based on the student's enrollment in the school in the sending state or educational assessments conducted at the school in the sending state if the courses are offered and space is available. Course placement includes, but is not limited to, honors, International Baccalaureate, Advanced Placement, vocational, and technical and career pathways courses. Continuing the student's academic program from the school in the sending state and promoting placement in academically and career-challenging courses must be paramount when considering placement. This subsection (a) does not preclude the school in the receiving state from performing subsequent evaluations to ensure appropriate placement and continued enrollment of the student in the course or courses.

(b) The receiving school shall initially honor the placement of the student in educational programs based on current educational assessments conducted at the school in the sending state or participation or placement in like programs in the school in the sending state. Such programs include, but are not limited to, gifted and talented programs and English as a Second Language (ESL). This subsection (b) does not preclude the school in the receiving state from performing subsequent evaluations to ensure appropriate placement of the student.

(c) The school district of a school shall have flexibility in waiving course or program prerequisites or other preconditions for placement in offered courses or programs. The school district of a school shall work with a transfer student to determine an appropriate schedule that ensures that a student will graduate, provided that the student has met the district's minimal graduation requirements, which may be modified provided that the modifications are a result of scheduling issues and not a result of the student's academic failure.

(d) If a student transfers to a new school district during his or her senior year and the receiving school district cannot make reasonable adjustments under this Section to ensure graduation, then the school district shall make every reasonable effort to ensure that the school district from where the student transfers issues the student a diploma.

(e) Schools shall facilitate the opportunity for transitioning military children's inclusion in extracurricular activities, to the extent the children are otherwise qualified and space is available as determined by the school principal.

(f) A student whose parent or legal guardian is an active duty member of the uniformed services and has been called to duty for, is on leave from, or has immediately returned from deployment to a combat zone or combat-support posting must be granted additional absences, at the discretion of the school district's superintendent, to visit with his or her parent or legal guardian relative to such leave or deployment of the parent or guardian.

(Source: P.A. 98-673, eff. 6-30-14.)