Senate Schools Bill (SB 26) Amended – HEARING April 25

This proposed law is very similar to current Illinois law which reads as follows:

720 ILCS 5/11-9.3
(a) It is unlawful for a child sex offender to knowingly be present in any school building, on real property comprising any school, or in any conveyance owned, leased, or contracted by a school to transport students to or from school or a school related activity when persons under the age of 18 are present in the building, on the grounds or in the conveyance, UNLESS the offender is a parent or guardian of a student attending the school AND the parent or guardian is: (i) attending a conference at the school with school personnel to discuss the progress of his or her child academically or socially, (ii) participating in child review conferences in which evaluation and placement decisions may be made with respect to his or her child regarding special education services, or (iii) attending conferences to discuss other student issues concerning his or her child such as retention and promotion AND notifies the principal of the school of his or her presence at the school OR UNLESS the offender has permission to be present from the superintendent or the school board or in the case of a private school from the principal. In the case of a public school, if permission is granted, the superintendent or school board president must inform the principal of the school where the sex offender will be present. Notification includes the nature of the sex offender’s visit and the hours in which the sex offender will be present in the school. The sex offender is responsible for notifying the principal’s office when he or she arrives on school property and when he or she departs from school property. If the sex offender is to be present in the vicinity of children, the sex offender has the duty to remain under the direct supervision of a school official.

Some school superintendents do not permit parents on the registry to visit a school for any reason other than parent/teacher conferences even though the statute grants them the discretion to allow visits for other reasons such as watching a child perform in a concert or in an athletic event at the school.

Below is the text of the agreement that my daughter’s principal had me sign recently. He came up with this standard agreement for all of the schools in the district since other registered parents were requesting to attend events at other schools in the district.

Letter of Understanding

Pursuant to District Board of Education Policy 8:30 with the approval of the superintendent the following conditions must be satisfied by _________________ before he may request permission to attend various school events held at _____________________ School in which his student is directly involved.

1) A written request must be sent to the ____________ School principal two (2) weeks in advance of any intended visit to __________ School premises for the express purpose of watching his student participate in extracurricular activities or to attend meetings regarding his student’s education. In the event that ___________ should need to be on school property to attend to an academic situation (illness, conference, etc.) for his student and is unable to provide the two weeks of notice for the request, the principal, vice-principal, or deans of students may be contacted via telephone and may grant the necessary permission. The drop off or pick up of his student from school property is only permissible with prior approval.
2) The ________________ School principal will respond to all requests via e-mail. If approved, the principal will identify the name of the school authority who will be supervising his attendance. Please note that a copy of all e-mail correspondences will also be sent to the _________________ School Administrative team, the Superintendent, and the Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources, and the designated supervisor for that event.
3) Any request to attend any __________________ School school-related events in which his student is participating that is hosted by another school must be directed to that host school for permission. If permission is granted by the appropriate school authority, _____________________ School will not be responsible to provide the necessary supervising personnel at that site. If his student is participating in a school sponsored event off campus, but not at another school (park, library, etc.), ________________ must request permission from the ________________ School principal as delineated in 1) above.
4) If an administrator is normally not present during an event and one can be arranged by the principal, the parent will incur any expense associated with the hiring of required supervision. The supervision rate will be commensurate with the summer school teacher hourly rate of pay ($37.36 per hour). A minimum of two hours compensation will be billed regardless of the duration of the event. A corresponding bill will be sent via e-mail subsequent to each occurrence. Payment must be remitted to the principal’s secretary within 2 weeks of receipt of said bill. If supervision cannot be arranged by the principal, the request will be denied.
5) If a request to attend is approved by the principal, ________________’s arrival time on school premises is not to exceed more than 30 minutes prior to the scheduled start of the event. Similarly, ___________ must depart the premises immediately following the conclusion of said event. Furthermore, upon arrival at any approved event, ______________ will immediately make contact with the designated school supervisor inside the Main Office of the building. If the Main Office is closed, the meeting will take place in the foyer immediately outside of the Main Office unless another arrangement is made. Additionally, ______________ will remain in the line of sight of the designated school supervisor at all times during the duration of his attendance.
6) In the event that an activity has multiple performances (ex. musicals, concerts, plays, etc.) permission may be granted for not more than one (1) such performance.
7) Requests to attend any events in which his student is not directly participating will not be approved.
8) The District superintendent or principal of ____________________ School reserves the right to rescind approval for attendance at anytime. Similarly, the provisions of this letter of understanding may be modified by the superintendent or principal at anytime.

I have read, understand and agree to abide by the aforementioned conditions.

__________________________________ _________________________ _______________________
Signature of Parent Date E-mail address Cell Phone #

I am just getting ready now to write my letter in opposition to this bill. My phone calls will come after that. I watched and listened to the presentation of this bill to the education committee. What bothered me the most and still does is that #1 Connie Levy made the statement that this bill only will only have an impact on the worse of the worse the “violent predators”. This is total misrepresentation on her part. And #2 her statement regarding reasons to be on a school campus, if you are working for example as a janitor! Her attitude is nothing more than deplorable. And for an individual that has been elected to a public office, as she was, she frankly has no excuse for herself. It is once again time for all to become involved to stand united, speak out and to fight this bill.

Well stated Harry!

I think it is significant that this bill states it is creating a new crime, criminalizing what was legal behavior before. What other former offenders than registrants have special crimes made exclusively for them? We have a bifurcated legal system, one especially for us, (oh how thoughtful of them!) and one for everyone else.

Yes, please bring your children and grandchildren to the April 25 hearing! They need to be seen and heard by the author of the bill as well as by members of the Public Safety Committee.

I just saw where Leyva amended her “bill” on April 18. In this new version, she specifically EXCLUDES registered pupils from any restriction. Small “Equal Protection” issue, maybe?