Illinois Laws and Rules

"If twelve or fifteen hundred schools are to be placed under one general administration, an attention so divided will amount to a dereliction of them to themselves ... It is surely better, then, to place each school at once under the care of those most interested in its conduct."

-- Thomas Jefferson, 1817

Regulations are Strangling Schools

• Study: Rules and Regulations Are Paralyzing U.S. Schools by George Clowes, School Reform News, March 1, 2005. Excerpts:
  "A new study from the bipartisan legal reform coalition Common Good found U.S. schools are greatly over-regulated, in many cases to the point of paralysis. The study details thousands upon thousands of laws and regulations that apply to public schools in New York City. ... The study, titled 'Over Ruled: The Burden of Law on America's Public Schools,' found more than 60 separate sources of laws and regulations governing the operation of a typical public high school in New York City, imposing thousands of specific obligations on school officials. The sources of regulation include the following:
  • 846 pages of New York State education law;
  • 720 pages of regulations from the New York State Commissioner of Education;
  • 690 pages of the No Child Left Behind Act;
  • 309 pages of the New York City teachers' contract and memorandum of understanding;
  • 200+ pages of regulations controlling student discipline; and
  • 43 volumes of appeals decisions--totaling 15,062 decisions--made by the New York State Commissioner of Education."

• Over Ruled: The Burden of Law on America's Public Schools, a study by Common Good.

• Can There Be Beneficial School Regulations? by David W. Kirkpatrick, January 2003. "Since regulations, like death and taxes, are certain, can they not at least be rational and beneficial? Some time ago, John Gardner, member-at-large of the Milwaukee School Board, had ... suggestions for four regulations he says are needed. They are: 1. Public, verifiable, comparable data on what happens to graduates of schools after they leave their respective schools ... 2. Public, verifiable, comparable data about enrollment, attendance, academic skills, and promotions/graduations across all ... education sectors ... 3. Clear, consistent statements of what academic skills are considered proficient ... 4. How much money, from all governmental sources, is actually spent, per student, per year, per school ..."

• Educational Hypocrisy by David W. Kirkpatrick, July 27, 2006. "[In discussing] regulations of which [status quo educationists] complain, let it first be said that they do indeed have a point, the public schools are burdened with too many unrealistic and unreasonable restrictions. These show an almost complete lack of confidence in their ability to do their job if allowed freedom, and an attempt to prevent them from doing any wrong. State and federal legislators and regulators seem to be incapable of recognizing that, to the degree you make it difficult for people to do wrong you make it difficult for them to do right. Having said this, however, what is the source of virtually all of these laws and restrictions? Why from the very public school establishment that objects to them. If you don't believe that, take them at their word and try to repeal some of those restrictions such as, say, the blizzard of various certifications that apply to educators. These did not arise because of public demand or taxpayer concerns. They were promoted by educators themselves, educators who fight tooth and nail in opposition to any attempt to repeal them, although study after study for decades have proven conclusively that, at best, they are ineffective and at worst, more commonly, they are downright harmful. ...
    "Accepting their claims that these restrictions keep the public schools from being as effective as they might otherwise be, to which there is some truth, look at how they propose to resolve the problem. Saying that regulations prohibit public schools from succeeding, an excuse for failure, they propose placing the same burden on nonpublic schools. In other words, rather than give the public schools the flexibility they see in the nonpublic sector, let's make the latter be similarly ineffective. If we can't succeed you shouldn't be able to do so either."

Illinois State Board of Education

• Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE)


• ILEARN (Illinois Local Education Agency Retrieval Network): this site from the ISBE provides a wealth of financial information about each individual school district.
  
  
• ISBEWatch: a watchdog group keeping an eye on the ISBE, particularly as it pertains to Gov. Blagojevich's 2004 reorganization. Also has an open discussion forum.
  
  

  Editorial cartoonist Eric Allie's view of Gov. Blagojevich's attack on the ISBE: "If you seek progress, tear down this wall." Yes, but what is the real wall? Click to see!

Illinois Public School Districts

For listings and details on government school districts and schools in Illinois, click here.

Education Reform in Illinois

How Well Is Illinois Educating Its Neediest Children?
Student Achievement:	D-
Achievement Trends:	No Progress
Education Reform:	D+

• How Well Are States Educating Our Neediest Children? Thomas B. Fordham Institute, November 2006.
• Section of study on Illinois: "The National Assessment for Educational Progress shows that Illinois's low-income and minority students score worse than their counterparts in all but 12 states and have made no significant progress over the last decade. This record is among the worst in the nation. ... Whatever the measures and targets, the Prairie State is not doing enough to improve student learning. ... Illinois has middling academic standards, no statewide high school exit exam, and an archaic reliance on education schools as the only producers of teachers for public classrooms. ... Illinois's education problems are real, but the state's patchy, belated approach to fixing them ensures only that the state will continue to lag behind the rest of the nation. Politicians may spew all the hot air they want, but it'll take a lot more than a warm wind to disperse the ominous student achievement cloud hanging over the Land of Lincoln."

Illinois Constitution and Current Statutes

Here are a few links for information on the state laws, rules and bureaucracy regarding education in Illinois:


• Illinois Constitution
  • Article X - Education: this short article of the Illinois Constitution authorizes the state's interest in education.
    
    
    • Section 1 simply lays out the goals, including provision for "an efficient system of high quality public educational institutions and services." Special note should be given to the phrasing in these sentences: "Education in public schools through the secondary level shall be free. There may be such other free education as the General Assembly provides by law." (Italics added.) This seems to leave open the possibility of state funding for schools not operated by the government.
      
      
    • Section 2 empowers a state board of education.
      
      
    • Section 3 is Illinois' very own "Blaine Amendment" prohibiting any funding for "sectarian" purposes. Note that the word "sectarian" historically does not mean "religious"; sectarian actually refers to specific sects. (The distinction is significant in terms of 19th century anti-Catholic fervor, from which these things arose. For more information about this, go directly to the Blaine Amendments page of this website.) This phrasing rules out, for example, a school run by a Catholic parish or diocese, but it apparently does not rule out funding for an independent school that includes non-denomination Christian or Jewish coursework in its curriculum.
      
      
    • Compare the current text with the revision proposed in the Heartland Institute's "Report on School Finance Reform".
  
  
• Note: "ILCS" refers to the Illinois Compiled Statutes, the consolidated body of Illinois laws. The Illinois School Code is Chapter 105 of the ILCS.

• Illinois statutes (click here for all Illinois statutes)
• Schools
  • School Code. Click for detailed information. Here are a few specific topics of interest:
    • Article 2 - State Board Of Education - Powers And Duties: The is a very important part of the code, which grants the ISBE enormous authority. Because of its importance and to improve readability, we have extracted this section for your convenience:
      • Illinois Loop: State Laws on Standards and Testing, covering sections
        • 2-3.63 ("Local learning objectives and assessment "). In particular, this section requires schools to "set student learning objectives which meet or exceed goals established by the State," which is to say, the Illinois Learning Standards.
        • 2-3.64 ("State goals and assessment"), and
        • 2-3.64a ("State Testing Review Committee").
    • Article 9 - Elections
    • Article 10 - School Boards: this is another HUGE section of the Code, that touches on many issues of how schools are run in Illinois. It starts out by providing the expected regulations on the structure, election and operation of the board itself, but then goes on with many, many subsections regarding the powers given to boards, and that covers an awful lot of ground.
      • For general information on school boards, their authority, and discussion on their operation, purpose, effectiveness and politics, please go to our page on School Boards.
    • Article 21 - Teacher Certification
    • Article 27a - Charter Schools. Also see this page at the ISBE website.
    • Article 28 - Instructional Material
    • Be sure to read the index page for the full School Code for other topics.
    
    
  • In 2002, a special Governor's Commission on Revising the Illinois School Code drew up an astonishing 1,130 pages of proposed revisions to the Illinois School Code, all of which is posted at that link. Many of the changes are trivial (such as replacing the word "pupil" with "student" in hundreds of references) but there are some areas of significance. What is truly amazing is that despite such a huge undertaking, there is almost no impact on advancing real school reform: the protected interests behind the status quo are still well protected.
• Higher Education
• Educational Labor Relations

Recent Illinois Legislation

• Recent Illinois Policies/Activities, Education Commission of the States

Pending Legislation

Actions in the Illinois Senate and House can drastically affect the learning environment of your children. You can check to see what is happening with education legislation in Springfield with some of these sources:


• New School Laws - 2004, Illinois Association of School Boards. This compilation of bills passed by the General Assembly describes bills sent to the Governor for final disposal and provides Public Act numbers for those already signed into law.
  
  
• "Hot Bills"
  Illinois Statewide School Management Alliance
  
  
• Illinois Business Roundtable - Education Alert: This is another good site listing pending Illinois legislation on ed issues.
  
  
• ED-RED calls itself the "voice of suburban schools" and has a membership consisting of the superintendents of most of the Chicago suburban school districts. Not too surprisingly, they are in favor of loosening achievement goals, giving more money to school districts, weakening tax caps, and keeping as much authority in the hands of district administrators as possible. Nonetheless, they do have some goals that are consistent with those of education reformers: For example, they oppose handing over control of certification to a board dominated by education unions. The ED-RED website is an excellent source of information about current legislation in Springfield, and about our state legislators and the school districts they cover and the committees they are on.
  
  
• Another good source of information about pending legislation in Springfield is this Digest of New School Laws, 2004 provided by the Illinois Association of School Boards. Of course, most of these boards and the IASB itself are highly oriented towards preserving the status quo, so don't expect unbiased coverage. However, this does provide a heads-up.
  
  
• You can also track specific legislation, using the handy search tool we've provided here. Use "HB" for House bills and "SB" for Senate bills. For example, to read about the status of Senate Bill 1074, enter "SB1074" (without the quotes) and click Search.
  
  

  Illinois Loop Legislation Tracker

  
  
  Or, go directly to the website of the Illinois General Assembly for full information on all pending bills, resolutions and executive orders.
  
  

Who's Who in Springfield

• Writing to your state legislators: If you do not know the names or addresses of your Illinois state house and senate legislators, you can look up their names and mailing addresses here.
  
  
• Senate Education Committee
  
  
• House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee
  
  
• House Appropriations - Elementary and Secondary Education Committee
  
  
• Illinois Senate Leadership
  
  
• Illinois House Leadership
  
  

Information a School District SHOULD Provide

Here's our Illinois Loop recommendation on what information a school district should provide: Candor: Complete Information for the Community

Open Meetings Act

The state of Illinois has an Open Meetings law ... Government in Illinois can't operate behind closed doors. -- Illinois Press Association

• Illinois Opening Meetings Act: information from the Citizen Advocacy Center.

• In 2006, the Illinois general assembly amended the Open Meetings Act to broaden the definition of a "meeting". It now includes gatherings, whether in person or by telephone call, video or audio conference, electronic means (such as e-mail, chat, and instant messaging), or other means of contemporaneous interactive communication for the purpose of discussing public business.

• Q&A from the Citizen Advocacy Center in Elmhurst, Fall 2005:
  Q: If a public body forms a task force ... does that task force have to comply with the Open Meetings Act?

  A: Yes, the task force is a subsidiary public body and must comply with the Open Meetings Act. The issue is ... whether or not the task force was created by a public body, and is responsible to a primarily public body. If the answers are yes, it is a public body. Hopf v. Topcorp, Inc. 628 N.E.2nd 311(ILL.App. 1 Dist. 1993)

• Full text of the statute

• Illinois Open Meetings Act, a better-formatted version of the text of the statute, from the Springfield Law Offices of Donald M. Craven.

• Illinois Open Meetings Act: information from the office of the Attorney General of Illinois. Of particular note:
  • Attorney General's Guide to the Open Meetings Act (revised in Fall 2004)
  • Fact Sheet on Recording of Closed Meetings

• Some crucial points from the Attorney General's Guide to the Open Meetings Act (2004):
  • What meetings are covered?
    • "Meeting" is defined as "any gathering of a majority of a quorum of the members of a public body held for the purpose of discussing public business."
    • "... includes in-person, telephonic and electronic assemblages."
    • "The Act applies only to public bodies. It does not apply to private, not-for-profit corporations ..."
    • "Public body" is defined to include "all legislative, executive, administrative or advisory bodies of the state, counties, townships, cities, villages, incorporated towns, school districts and all other municipal corporations, boards, bureaus, committees or commissions of this State, and any subsidiary bodies of any of the foregoing including but not limited to committees and subcommittees which are supported in whole or in part by tax revenue ..."
    • "Questions frequently arise about whether the Act covers meetings of various subgroups, such as committees, subcommittees and advisory bodies. The answer is yes."
    • The Act's "language should not be interpreted to create an exception for other groups, such as advisory committees or subcommittees which do not spend or use tax revenue; they, too, are covered." [The A.G.'s Guide provides substantial additional discussion on these points.]
  • Exceptions for closed meetings:
    • "The exceptions to the Open Meetings Act are limited in number and very specific. Because they are contrary to the general requirement that meetings be open, the exceptions are to be strictly construed, extending only to subjects clearly within their scope."
    • "The exceptions can be grouped under the following six headings, but it is important to emphasize that not all matters or meetings that might fall under the scope of the general headings are exempt -- only those within the scope of a specific exception."
      • "Employment/Appointment Matters"
      • "Legal Matters"
      • "Business Matters" [primarily concerned with purchase or lease of real property, or investments]
      • "Security/Criminal Matters"
      • "Student disciplinary cases" or "The placement of individual students in special education programs and other matters relating to individual students."
      • Miscellaneous specific exceptions
    • For much more detail about exceptions for closed meetings, see the Attorney General's Guide
  • "Taping and Filming: ... any person may record a public meeting 'by tape, film or other means.'"
  • Minutes:
    • "All public bodies shall keep written minutes of all their open meetings"
    • "Minutes shall include ... a summary of discussion on all matters proposed, deliberated, or decided, and a record of any votes taken." [We would take that to mean that any discussion must be summarized, rather than just a simple note that a discussion took place.]
    • "The minutes of meetings open to the public shall be available for public inspection within 7 days of the approval of such minutes by the public body."
  • Public notice:
    • "Public notice must be given for all meetings..."
    • "...by posting a copy of the notice at the principal office [or] at the building in which the meeting is to be held."
    • A "schedule of regular meetings [must be posted] at the beginning of each calendar or fiscal year and shall state the regular dates, times, and places of such meetings."
    • "An agenda for each regular meeting is required to be posted 48 hours in advance of such meeting"
    • "Public notice of any special meeting except a meeting held in the event of a bona fide emergency, or of any rescheduled regular meeting, or of any reconvened meeting, shall be given at least 48 hours before such meeting, which notice shall also include the agenda..."
    • "The Act requires that notice be given ... by sending a notice to each news medium that has filed an annual request for notice. Such news media providing a local address or telephone number for notice are entitled to notice of special, emergency, rescheduled or reconvened meetings ..."
  • "Public meetings must be held at times and places convenient and open to the public."
  • "If a public body holds a meeting without fulfilling the public notice and public convenience requirements, it has violated the Act."
  • Courts have ruled that a meeting is not held in a place "convenient" to the public if held in a room too small for the numbers of citizens who wished to attend.
  • Enforcement:
    • "... any person, including the State's Attorney of the county in which such noncompliance may occur, may bring a civil action in the circuit court for the judicial circuit in which the alleged noncompliance has occurred or is about to occur ... prior to or within 60 days of the meeting"
    • "Violation of the Act is a criminal offense, a Class C misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $1500 and imprisonment for up to 30 days."

• Mailing list on school meetings:
  The Illinois School Code provides this mandate on meeting notices and agendas:

       Sec. 10-21. Additional duties of board. Boards of education in addition to the duties enumerated above shall have the additional duties enumerated in Sections 10-21.1 through 10-21.11.

       Sec. 10-21.6. Mailing list. To establish and maintain a mailing list of the names and addresses of persons who each year request inclusion thereon, and to mail to those persons copies of board agenda, school budgets, audits, and within 10 days of each board meeting, a copy of the approved meeting minutes. Annual subscription fees approximating the costs of reproducing and mailing the materials may be charged to the subscribers at the beginning of the subscription period.

• The Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB) also has its own guide to the OMA:
  School Board Meetings: Requirements of the Illinois Open Meetings Act (2006) by Terrence M. Barnicle and James P. Bartley, Illinois Association of School Boards. Some highlights learned from this document:
  • Websites:
    • Posting of Agendas: If the public body (such as the school district) has a Web site that is maintained by the full time staff of the public body, then ...
      • It is required to post on its Web site the agenda of any regular meeting. This posting shall remain on the Web site until the regular meeting is concluded.
      • Notice of any special meeting shall also be posted on the Web site, and the notice must include the agenda for the special meeting.
    • Posting of Minutes: The minutes of any regular meeting open to the public must be posted on the Web site within seven days of the approval of the minutes and shall remain posted for at least 60 days.
  • Minutes: Minutes must include "a summary of the discussion on all matters proposed, deliberated or decided, and a record of any votes ... the Open Meetings Act appears to require that the minutes reflect what discussion occurred and not merely list the topics that were discussed." (See the linked document for details and examples.)
  • Closed meetings:
    • Voting to hold a closed session meeting requires a citation to the specific statutory exception.
    • Recordings: "All public bodies, including committees and commissions, must also keep a verbatim record of their closed meetings in the form of an audio or video recording."
  • Location: The requirement that meetings be held in a convenient location may require change in ordinary venue when the public body is aware that the normal venue will be too small for the number of citizens that wish to attend.
  • Committee and Subcommittees: "The creation of committees does not circumvent the Act, but each committee is subject to and governed by the provisions of the Act. A committee or subcommittee of a public body is required to give notice of its meetings, keep minutes and comply with all other requirements of the Act. However, the Act does not apply to meetings or conferences of department heads, staff or employees. A citizens committee appointed to advise a school board is covered by the Act; a committee appointed to advise a superintendent or principal is not covered."

• Meeting agendas: A public body cannot vote or take action on topics that have not been announced in advance on a meeting agenda. This applies to school boards, and also to committees or task forces created by the boards.

• Law Offices of Donald M. Craven: This law firm serves as general counsel to the Illinois Press Association, the Illinois Broadcasters Association and the Illinois News Broadcasters Association. This has given them quite a background on Illinois OMA and FOIA law. Useful documents on their website concerning OMA include:
  • Sample Annual Request for Notice

• Do your experiences on a school committee sound like this: "I never realized what it was at the time. At most I had a vague sensation that something was not quite right, but I could not figure out what it was."

  If so, you may have been "Delphi'ed"! Read more about that here:

  Illinois Loop: School Committees and the Delphi Method

Freedom of Information Act

Freedom of information means that the public has the right to most information gathered and held by the government. As a citizen, you have a right to know what's going on in your government. That's freedom of information.      Government officials do not have the right to withhold records that belong to the public. -- Illinois Press Association

Just as federal agencies are subject to the requirements of the federal Freedom of Information Act, all 50 states have enacted similar rules for their own governmental units. In Illinois, this is covered by the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. Since public school districts are units of government, you have the right to access many of the documents produced by your district.

• Fill-in-the-Blanks FOIA Letter Generator, from the Student Press Law Center.

  Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan

• The office of the Illinois Attorney General provides some extremely helpful information:
  • A Complete Guide to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (PDF):
    Here's your new best friend -- an indispensible guide to how you can access the public documents you're legally entited to see.
  • Illinois Freedom of Information Act:
    • Text of IFOIA Statute
    • Getting a public record from a government agency in Illinois
    • Responding to requests under the Freedom of Information Act: A Guide for Government Agencies: Here's an instructive insight of the Attorney General telling government officials a basic outline of what they have to do to comply with the Illinois FOIA.
  • Federal Freedom of Information Act
  • Ensuring Open and Honest Government
  • Illinois Open Meetings Act

• The state office of ombudsman may be useful in answering questions about FOIA and Open Meetings. See this article: New Open Government Ombudsman Is Kept Busy by Kathy Routliffe, Pioneer Press, March 31, 2005.
  
  
• WikiFOIA: The wiki for helping people understand and use FOIA at the state and local level.

• The website of the Electronic Frontier Foundation also provides several helpful references:
  • Illinois: The full text of the Illinois FOIA
  • Federal: Numerous documents and guides related to your access to information from federal agencies
  
  
• The Citizen Advocacy Center in Elmhurst describes itself as "non-profit, non-partisan community legal organization dedicated to building democracy." They provide information and instruction on your rights with regards to governmental units. A number of their specific events and projects espouse liberal political causes and perspectives, but much of their information may be valuable in non-political issues (such as most school district issues). They provide a "Citizen's Guide" to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, which contains extremely valuable information such as how to make a request, a sample request letter, what it may cost, and how to respond to a rejected request. Other CAC "citizen's guides" cover relevant topics such as the Illinois Opening Meetings Act and "Voter Initiatives: A Guide for Placing Decisions on the Ballot" and how to take action by writing letters to newspapers and legislators.
  
  
• Q&A from the Citizen Advocacy Center in Elmhurst, Fall 2005:
  Q: Can a government body prohibit a person from using a digital camera or portable scanner to copy documents requested under Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)?

  A: While there is no law on the issue, it is the Center's opinion that a public body cannot prohibit a person from making his or her own copies. The FOIA allows the public to inspect copies free of charge and only charge fees reasonably calculated to reimburse the public body for actual costs. For hand-held digital cameras and scanners, there are no actual costs to the public body.

• BGA Study Finds 62% Of Public Bodies Fail To Comply With Freedom Of Information Act For Ordinary Citizens: A report by the Better Government Association (BGA) reveals an overwhelming rate of failure among public agencies asked to produce public records. The report, Curiosity Killed the Cat, details the challenges an ordinary citizen faced, when asking for public records from 408 units of government in Illinois. Among the study's findings:
  • Only 38% of public bodies were fully or substantially compliant. Among school districts, only 29% complied.
  • 39% failed to respond at all, a violation of the Act. Among school districts, 41% failed to reply!
  • Of those audited, 62% failed to comply with FOIA.
  "The results are appalling," said Jay Stewart, Executive Director of the Better Government Association. "When the overwhelming majority does not comply with the law and produce records that are clearly available under FOIA, something is seriously wrong." Even more disturbing than the results alone was the level of resistance, obfuscation, and outright hostility that greeted the ordinary citizen asking to see public records.

• Photocopy charges:
  • Schools Overcharge for FOIA by Lennie Jarratt. "I questioned the cost in Grayslake District 46. When I started FOIAing documents 2 years ago, they charged 10 cents per copy. They have since raised their costs to 20 cents. When I questioned why they had raised the fee, I was ignored by being told, this is what we always have charged and no further research was going to be done. You can imagine my reaction. I immediately FOIAed the actual cost of copiers, paper and ink toners. ... the State's Attorney General agreed with me that the district is overcharging for the copy of a FOIA request."

  • Letter from Lisa Madigan, Attorney General of the State of Illinois, to Grayslake School District 46, regarding excessive photocopy charges

  • Letter from Lisa Madigan, Attorney General of the State of Illinois, to Winthrop Harbor School District 1, regarding excessive photocopy charges

• What about administrator contracts?
  In 2008, courts ruled that the contracts for school district administrators are subject to the Freedom of Information Act, and must be supplied in response to a FOIA request for them.

• The Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB) also has its own guide to the Illinois FOIA:
  Letting the Sunshine In: School Board Records by Terrence M. Barnicle and James P. Bartley, Illinois Association of School Boards

• Law Offices of Donald M. Craven: This law firm serves as general counsel to the Illinois Press Association, the Illinois Broadcasters Association and the Illinois News Broadcasters Association. This has given them quite a background on Illinois OMA and FOIA law. Useful documents on their website concerning FOIA include:
  • Sample Overview FOIA Request Letter
  • Sample Regular FOIA Request Letter
  • Sample FOIA Appeal Letter

• Some additional FOIA sources:
  • Freedom of Information Center at the University of Missouri-Columbia
  • National Freedom of Information Coalition
  • ACLU Step-by-Step Guide to Using the FOIA
  
  
  
• Illinois Press Association honors top access offenders with "Worsty Awards": Read this for some enlightening and fascinating stories about the 10 FOIA "award" winners and 10 OMA "award" winners! "IPA Board Member Larry Green, president/publisher of Pioneer Press newspapers and chairman of the IPA's government relations committee said the 'Worsty Awards' were created to underscore the importance of compliance with the two laws. 'Despite increased vigilance by our organization, the Attorney General's office and other watchdog groups, the abuses of these two access laws continues to escalate,' Green said. 'These 'awards' identify the worst offenders each year. We hope that this will help to curtail future abuses.' While only 10 violators in each category were identified, there are hundreds of examples throughout the state, said Doug Ray, president and CEO of the Daily Herald ... and president of the IPA. 'Despite all the work that this organization (the IPA) does to combat abuses of both the OMA and FOIA, the problem continues to spiral out of control,' Ray said."

Whistleblower Reward and Protection Act

"One of the major themes in public administration is the tendency for producers to gain control over the agencies that are supposed to regulate them on behalf of consumers. ... A large body of literature is devoted to 'regulatory capture' and its undesirable consequences."

-- Myron Lieberman, Public Education: An Autopsy

Shady doings in your district? Then you'll want to read up on the Illinois Whistleblower Reward and Protection Act, enacted in 1991 to expose the fraudulent actions of state employees and politicians.

• A Citizen's Guide to the Illinois Whistleblower Reward and Protection Act, prepared by the Citizen Advocacy Center

• Answers to FAQs Regarding the State Officials and Employee Ethics Act, Ethics Act Committee of the Illinois Council of School Attorneys, 2004.

Special Education Law

• Special Education Advocacy Center: The Special Education Advocacy Center (SEAC) is a 501(c)(3) organization working to create an integrated effort by parents to improve educational opportunity and outcomes for students with disabilities.