INCIL Week of Daily Action: Support Education Services

INCIL Week of Daily Action: Support Education Services for Graduating Students with Disabilties

As part of the Illinois Network of Centers for Independent Living (INCIL) week of daily action, today we’d like to ask your help to support a bill related to education services for certain graduating students with disabilities. Please read on to learn more and take action.  

SB 1821/HB 2748 COVID-19 Recovery for Students with Significant Disabilities

Illinois Senate Bill 1821 (SB 1821) and its House version, House Bill 2748 (HB 2748), offers COVID-19 learning recovery for students with significant disabilities in transition programs statewide. These are the young adults whose transition training matters most for their adult life, but their educations were abruptly cut short due to COVID-19 before they developed essential skills or a plan for moving forward. The chief sponsors introduced the bill with support from Access Living, Legal Council of Health Justice, and numerous special education and disability rights advocates. The key provisions of SB 1821/HB 2748 are:

• Students who were enrolled in school up to their 22nd birthday-primarily students with intellectual or developmental disabilities- but turned 22 during the pandemic (the end of the 2021-22 school year) will have an option to receive an additional year of transition services in the 2021-2022 school year.
• Participation is completely voluntary.
• The costs of providing these COVID-19 recovery transition services may be funded through available federal COVID-19 relief education funds (over $8 billion) allocated to the State of Illinois.
• It does not take away any of the procedural rights that students already have if they choose not to opt into the continuation of services.
• Students who opt in to this additional transition year waive any claims for compensatory services due to events that occurred between March 17, 2020 and the resumption of services in the 2021-2022 school year.

TAKE ACTION: Please use this quick link to send an email to your Illinois state senators and representatives. We need them to understand how important these services are for helping students with significant disabilities transition to life after high school.