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SPRINGFIELD – To protect the wellbeing of public school employees, State Senator Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago) passed legislation in the Illinois Senate that would offer the same terms and conditions as the federal Family and Medical Leave Act.

“Illinois should expand access to family and medical leave for working families,” Villivalam said. “Our educators and school staff work on the frontlines every day to provide a quality education for our youth and deserve their leave with no strings attached.”

CHICAGO – State Senator Cristina Pacione-Zayas (D-Chicago) announced Wednesday a $250,000 construction project to improve and update a stretch of Kimball Avenue as part of the Illinois Department of Transportation’s multi-year construction plan.

“This project will bring some much-needed improvements to this part of the city, including accessibility updates,” Pacione-Zayas said. “It’s always good to see IDOT make infrastructure improvements that make our roadways a little more accessible and generate good jobs at the same time.”

SPRINGFIELD – State Senator Cristina Castro (D-Elgin)  spearheaded a measure to create a program that will help people with serious mental illness or substance use disorders by enabling access to affordable housing and support services.

“The Housing is Recovery Pilot Program will help break the cycle of institutionalization for those struggling with mental health issues and addiction,” Castro said. “We need to ensure those most vulnerable have a roof over their head and the services they need.”

Often, people with a serious mental illness or substance use disorder lack affordable housing, causing increased institutionalization, incarceration or risk of death from an overdose. House Bill 449 would create the Housing is Recovery Pilot Program to help prevent people with a serious mental illness or people who are at high risk of overdose due to lack of support services from being institutionalized or dying.

CHICAGO— State Senator Elgie R. Sims, Jr. advanced legislation out of the Senate, that would give community college boards of trustees and local housing authorities permission to develop affordable housing for community college students.

“There are many advantages to living on campus for students,” said Sims. “We all know that housing provides a place to lay your head, but the benefits go far beyond that, as studies show that students who live on campus complete more credit hours and have higher grade point averages. While also making campus resources like the library, labs and support services more easily available.”

Traditionally, community colleges do not have the right to own student housing. In order for community colleges to develop affordable housing for students, the process must be administered through a local Housing Authority or nonprofit organization.

SPRINGFIELD – An antiquated part of the criminal code that penalizes Illinoisans living with human immunodeficiency virus would be repealed under a measure co-sponsored in the Senate by State Senator Mike Simmons (D-Chicago), which cleared its final vote in the General Assembly Tuesday.

“The law this measure repeals is a relic of homophobia,” Simmons said. “HIV is an illness that must be treated, not stigmatized. The Senate did the right thing today by passing this measure, and I urge Gov. Pritzker to act quickly to sign it.”

House Bill 1063 repeals the portion of the criminal code that gives prosecutors the ability to charge people living with HIV with a Class 2 Felony for having consensual sex, sharing needles, or donating organs or bodily tissues and fluids. HIV is currently the only communicable disease subject to such criminalization.

“The fact that no other condition is treated this way under the law should tell everyone all they need to know about the motivations behind criminalizing HIV positivity,” Simmons said. 

The Senate passed House Bill 1063 on Tuesday. It awaits the governor’s signature to become law.

SPRINGFIELD - Senate Majority Leader Kimberly A. Lightford (D-Maywood) continued her years-long effort to create a more equitable education system in Illinois by passing legislation that would form a commission to assess whether public institutions of higher education serving disadvantaged communities need a different funding model and are receiving their fair share of state funding.

“If we want our Black, Latino, and low-income students to have the same opportunity as their white peers, our universities that serve them must have fair funding,” Lightford said. “We have to close the funding gaps between our schools that serve a large number of historically disadvantage students and the universities that don’t.”

Senate Bill 815 follows up on the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus Education and Workforce Development Pillar law that passed earlier this year.

SPRINGFIELD – A measure sponsored by State Senator John Connor (D-Lockport) that would require the monitoring and reporting of racial bias in hiring processes that rely on Artificial Intelligence passed the Senate on Tuesday.

“It’s important to ensure that qualified applicants have the employment opportunities they deserve,” Connor said. “We wouldn’t stand for racial bias in intrapersonal hiring processes, why should we accept it in technological ones?”

An increasing number of large companies are using Artificial Intelligence in their hiring processes. Prospective employees use a web link to record themselves answering a series of designated questions either verbally or by typed response, and the company’s AI software then analyzes the video to assign scores to facial expressions, word choice, body language and vocal tone. Advancement of applicants is based on this assigned score.

House Bill 53 requires companies that rely on AI screenings to select candidates to document and report the race and ethnicity of all screened applicants, both those hired and those rejected. Under this legislation, these reports are to be sent to the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, where the data would be analyzed and shared with the Governor and General Assembly.

The legislation passed the Senate with 43 votes.

SPRINGFIELD – A measure sponsored by State Senator Laura Ellman (D-Naperville) that would ensure no person is arrested while seeking help for someone suffering an opioid overdose passed committee on Tuesday.

“No one should ever go without lifesaving care, because another person is worried they will be charged with a crime,” Ellman said. “We need to ensure that the good deed of trying to save a life does not result in punishment.”

The measure, also known as “Alex’s Law,” would ensure that people who seek emergency assistance for an individual experiencing symptoms of an opioid overdose will not be arrested for any crime related to the use of drugs at the scene. The legislation aims to prevent situations where an individual dies from an opioid overdose due to the other people present fearing arrest if they call for help.

The idea for the measure came from the death of a 25-year-old Naperville resident, Alex Green, who died of a fentanyl overdose in 2018. Alex had been with others at the time of his overdose, but none of the others on the scene called 911 for assistance. This meant the officers who arrived on scene were not able to identify what had happened until it was too late, despite having Narcan (a medicine used to treat opioid overdoses) with them at the time.

“Had an unknown person who was on hand accompanied Alex into a public business and alerted staff that his friend was overdosing, proper 911 calls may have been made,” said Bill Green, Alex’s father and the original proponent of the legislation. “Friends, strangers and passersby need to know that it’s always safe to help someone in distress, so they may see those they love at least one more day.”

Ellman, Green, and other proponents hope that Alex’s law will lead to more people contacting 911 when others around them suffer an opioid overdose, potentially saving lives.

House Bill 3445 passed the Senate Criminal Law Committee by unanimous vote and now heads to the Senate floor for further consideration.