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Public Act 102-0445
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| HB2795 Enrolled | LRB102 14178 CMG 19530 b |
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AN ACT concerning education.
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Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
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represented in the General Assembly:
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Section 5. The School Code is amended by changing Section |
27A-5 as follows:
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(105 ILCS 5/27A-5)
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Sec. 27A-5. Charter school; legal entity; requirements.
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(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
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authorized under the laws of the State of Illinois.
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(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.
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Beginning on April 16, 2003 (the effective date of Public Act |
93-3), in all new
applications 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 Public Act 93-3 do not apply to charter |
schools existing or approved on or before April 16, 2003 (the
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effective date of Public Act 93-3). |
(b-5) In this subsection (b-5), "virtual-schooling" means |
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a cyber school where students engage in online curriculum and |
instruction via the Internet and electronic communication with |
their teachers at remote locations and with students |
participating at different times. |
From April 1, 2013 through December 31, 2016, there is a |
moratorium on the establishment of charter schools with |
virtual-schooling components in school districts other than a |
school district organized under Article 34 of this Code. This |
moratorium does not apply to a charter school with |
virtual-schooling components existing or approved prior to |
April 1, 2013 or to the renewal of the charter of a charter |
school with virtual-schooling components already approved |
prior to April 1, 2013.
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(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. No later than January 1, 2021 (one year |
after the effective date of Public Act 101-291) this |
amendatory Act of the 101st General Assembly, a charter |
school's board of directors or other governing body must |
include at least one parent or guardian of a pupil currently |
enrolled in the charter school who may be selected through the |
charter school or a charter network election, appointment by |
the charter school's board of directors or other governing |
body, or by the charter school's Parent Teacher Organization |
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or its equivalent. |
(c-5) No later than January 1, 2021 (one year after the |
effective date of Public Act 101-291) this amendatory Act of |
the 101st General Assembly or within the first year of his or |
her first term, every voting member of a charter school's |
board of directors or other governing body shall complete a |
minimum of 4 hours of professional development leadership |
training to ensure that each member has sufficient familiarity |
with the board's or governing body's role and |
responsibilities, including financial oversight and |
accountability of the school, evaluating the principal's and |
school's performance, adherence to the Freedom of Information |
Act and the Open Meetings Act Acts, and compliance with |
education and labor law. In each subsequent year of his or her |
term, a voting member of a charter school's board of directors |
or other governing body shall complete a minimum of 2 hours of |
professional development training in these same areas. The |
training under this subsection may be provided or certified by |
a statewide charter school membership association or may be |
provided or certified by other qualified providers approved by |
the State Board of Education.
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(d) For purposes of this subsection (d), "non-curricular |
health and safety requirement" means any health and safety |
requirement created by statute or rule to provide, maintain, |
preserve, or safeguard safe or healthful conditions for |
students and school personnel or to eliminate, reduce, or |
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prevent threats to the health and safety of students and |
school personnel. "Non-curricular health and safety |
requirement" does not include any course of study or |
specialized instructional requirement for which the State |
Board has established goals and learning standards or which is |
designed primarily to impart knowledge and skills for students |
to master and apply as an outcome of their education. |
A charter school shall comply with all non-curricular |
health and safety
requirements applicable to public schools |
under the laws of the State of
Illinois. On or before September |
1, 2015, the State Board shall promulgate and post on its |
Internet website a list of non-curricular health and safety |
requirements that a charter school must meet. The list shall |
be updated annually no later than September 1. Any charter |
contract between a charter school and its authorizer must |
contain a provision that requires the charter school to follow |
the list of all non-curricular health and safety requirements |
promulgated by the State Board and any non-curricular health |
and safety requirements added by the State Board to such list |
during the term of the charter. Nothing in this subsection (d) |
precludes an authorizer from including non-curricular health |
and safety requirements in a charter school contract that are |
not contained in the list promulgated by the State Board, |
including non-curricular health and safety requirements of the |
authorizing local school board.
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(e) Except as otherwise provided in the School Code, a |
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charter school shall
not charge tuition; provided that a |
charter school may charge reasonable fees
for textbooks, |
instructional materials, and student activities.
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(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. The contractor shall not be an employee of the charter |
school or affiliated with the charter school or its authorizer |
in any way, other than to audit the charter school's finances. |
To ensure financial accountability for the use of public |
funds, on or before December 1 of every year of operation, each |
charter school shall submit to its authorizer and the State |
Board a copy of its audit and a copy of the Form 990 the |
charter school filed that year with the federal Internal |
Revenue Service. In addition, if deemed necessary for proper |
financial oversight of the charter school, an authorizer may |
require quarterly financial statements from each charter |
school.
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(g) A charter school shall comply with all provisions of |
this Article, the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act, |
all federal and State laws and rules applicable to public |
schools that pertain to special education and the instruction |
of English learners, and
its charter. A charter
school is |
exempt from all other State laws and regulations in this Code
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governing public
schools and local school board policies; |
however, a charter school is not exempt from the following:
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(1) Sections 10-21.9 and 34-18.5 of this Code |
regarding criminal
history records checks and checks of |
the Statewide Sex Offender Database and Statewide Murderer |
and Violent Offender Against Youth Database of applicants |
for employment;
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(2) Sections 10-20.14, 10-22.6, 24-24, 34-19, and |
34-84a of this Code regarding discipline of
students;
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(3) the Local Governmental and Governmental Employees |
Tort Immunity Act;
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(4) Section 108.75 of the General Not For Profit |
Corporation Act of 1986
regarding indemnification of |
officers, directors, employees, and agents;
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(5) the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act;
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(5.5) subsection (b) of Section 10-23.12 and |
subsection (b) of Section 34-18.6 of this Code; |
(6) the Illinois School Student Records Act;
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(7) Section 10-17a of this Code regarding school |
report cards;
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(8) the P-20 Longitudinal Education Data System Act; |
(9) Section 27-23.7 of this Code regarding bullying |
prevention; |
(10) Section 2-3.162 of this Code regarding student |
discipline reporting; |
(11) Sections 22-80 and 27-8.1 of this Code; |
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(12) Sections 10-20.60 and 34-18.53 of this Code; |
(13) Sections 10-20.63 and 34-18.56 of this Code; |
(14) Section 26-18 of this Code; |
(15) Section 22-30 of this Code; and |
(16) Sections 24-12 and 34-85 of this Code; and . |
(17) the (16) The Seizure Smart School Act. |
The change made by Public Act 96-104 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.
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However, a charter school
that is established on
or
after |
April 16, 2003 (the effective date of Public Act 93-3) 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 April 16, 2003 (the
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effective date of Public Act 93-3) 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 |
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school reasonable rent for the use of the district's
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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
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governing body of a State college or university or public |
community college
shall be provided by the public entity at |
cost.
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(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.
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(j) A charter school may limit student enrollment by age |
or grade level.
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(k) If the charter school is approved by the State Board or |
Commission, then the charter school is its own local education |
agency. |
(Source: P.A. 100-29, eff. 1-1-18; 100-156, eff. 1-1-18; |
100-163, eff. 1-1-18; 100-413, eff. 1-1-18; 100-468, eff. |
6-1-18; 100-726, eff. 1-1-19; 100-863, eff. 8-14-18; 101-50, |
eff. 7-1-20; 101-81, eff. 7-12-19; 101-291, eff. 1-1-20; |