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 While much of the recent political spotlight in Illinois
concentrated on the state’s gubernatorial election and the passage of Amendment
1, over 180 new laws passed by the General Assembly are set to take effect on
Jan. 1, 2023. Ten days later, the 103rd General Assembly, most recently elected
this past cycle, will be inaugurated.
Several laws are anticipated to have potentially far-reaching consequences on
Illinois’ existing policies on education, public safety, agriculture and labor.
SAFE-T Act
A hot-button topic in the 2022 election cycle, provisions of the SAFE-T Act
taking effect in 2023 will replace the state’s current cash-bail system with a
pretrial release framework intended to eliminate inequality for defendants who
can’t afford to post bail.
Under the new system, judges have a heightened discretion to release or detain
defendants awaiting trial based on their threat to public safety or likelihood
to flee or obstruct justice.
The bill also requires increased training for police officers and phases in a
mandate that all police departments use body cameras by 2025. It loosens the
requirements for complaints against officers and would end so-called “prison
gerrymandering” by counting prisoners as living in their last known residence
for the purposes of legislative redistricting.
Trauma-informed school boards
Senate Bill 2109, filed by Illinois state Sen. Karina Villa, D-West Chicago, and
signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Aug. 27, 2021, mandates school board
members to receive training on “trauma-informed practices.”
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Practices include “the prevalence of trauma among students, including the
prevalence of trauma among student populations,” and “the effects of implicit or
explicit bias on recognizing trauma among various students in connection with
race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation,” among other things.
Such training may be provided by an association established under the Illinois
School Code and the State Board of Education has the power to adopt rules with
respect to administering this law.
Changes to employee sick leave
Senate Bill 0645, filed by state Sen. Michael E. Hastings, D-Frankfort, modifies
the Employee Sick Leave Act by mandating rights afforded under the act are the
minimum standard in any negotiated collective bargaining agreement.
The Employee Sick Leave Act required that any sick leave granted to employees is
usable by that employee for sickness of a family member, but left room for
negotiation in any collective bargaining agreement. The bill’s changes will be a
minimum standard in collective bargaining agreements that could not be reduced
in negotiation.
Interestingly, this would be a diminishment of collective bargaining rights
which Amendment 1, granting employees the exercise of their “fundamental right
to collectively bargain,” purports to protect.
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